Games Return
by brigrove
Summary: The peaceful life in Panem under "President Mockingjay", as Katniss is affectionately known, is about to change.  A series of explosions rock Panem followed by an announcement that will tear her family apart.  Second story in the Vengeance Games series
1. Chapter 1

"**Games Return" **

**Chapter One**

**By Brian Grove **

**Brian at rescueddoggies dot com**

**Disclaimer – As I'm British and male, it may come as no surprise that I don't own Hunger Games.**

**This is a sequel to Vengeance Games, but you do not need to have read that story to understand it.**

**An experienced beta would be welcome.**

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I am Tatiana Everdene. I want to start my story with a short history lesson. For seventy-five years, as punishment for a previous rebellion, a boy and a girl from each of the twelve Districts were picked (we call it reaped) and sent to the Capitol to train for a few days, and then to an arena to fight to the death with the children from the other Districts. They were known as tributes and twenty-four went in, one came out alive. It was the biggest show of the year.

One year, a girl, Katniss Everdene, volunteered to take her younger sister's place and went on to become one of the victors. She became known as The Mockingjay. She had then been taken to the hidden District Thirteen which everyone thought had been destroyed and led the rebellion against the Capitol and won.

In the final battle of the war, the President Coin of District Thirteen, scared of Katniss' influence, had arranged the murder of Primrose Everdene, the younger sister whose place Katnis had taken. For that, Katniss killed President Coin.

As revenge for all the children killed in the previous Hunger Games, the Districts decided to hold one last games, this time using children from the Capitol. They called them, the Justice Games.

Ariana, she was my older sister, and I, were grandchildren of the previous tyrant, President Snow, of the Capitol, so we were put into the Justice Games. Somehow I was the one who survived and was adopted by Katniss Everdene, even though I was twelve and she was only eighteen. Because she had won the trust of both the Capitol and the Districts, she was asked to become president even though she had only just had her eighteenth birthday.

THREE YEARS LATER

I was ill in bed with the flu, really annoyed as it meant that I had missed the best school trip of the year, to the new surface city of District Thirteen. I was bored out of my mind, switching from channel to channel.

"Reports are coming in of a tragic accident in District Thirteen. During a schoolchildren's tour of the newly rebuilt surface city, one of the tour transit vehicles came off the rails and burned in a tunnel. None of the nearly one thousand children in the other forty transit vehicles were hurt, but it is believe that the transit vehicle involved in the accident contained family members of the mayors of many of the districts, among other children."

It hit me like a hammer. I should have been on that transit and I probably knew at least half of those who had been killed. It seems that I have escaped death again.

One hour later...

"Reports are coming in of a major explosion in the center of District Twelve. Early reports say that some radioactivity has been detected though where this is from is as yet unknown. There are also unconfirmed reports that the transit accident in District Thirteen was actually a similar explosion."

Four hours later...

"Sources close to the President have confirmed that the timed explosions in each of the Districts and in the Capitol all had elements of radioactivity, though the amount of radioactivity is said to be low. We cross now live to President Everdeen."

Mom, as I have come to call her, looked exhausted. "I will read a short statement. After that I will briefly take questions. Between 1600 hours and 2100 hours this evening a series of explosions took place in the center of each of the Districts and in the center of the Capitol. Due to the selected locations and the timing of the explosions, in most cases there were few casualties and no fatalities as far as we know at this time. We believe that we are under attack, as yet we do not know who by, or why. Due to some radioactivity in each of the bomb sites, we ask people to stay away from them for the time being. They are presently being searched thoroughly by trained personal equipped with anti radiation suits. The one tragic exception to the no fatalities announcement was the attack in District Thirteen which has resulted in the deaths of family members of the mayors of all the Districts as well as dozen other children, believed to be from the Capitol and two teachers who were accompanying them. I will take questions."

"Why do you think whoever did this took so much trouble to ensure no fatalities in the other Districts or the Capitol, yet killed so many children in District Thirteen?"

"I don't know."

"Are you in contact with the Mayors of the Districts?"

"Yes. While obviously each of them has their own family tragedy to deal with, they are keeping in touch with senior investigators in each District and here in the Capitol. My office is liaising with them, but we are leaving the investigation to the professionals."

"Is it true that your own adopted daughter would have been on that transit vehicle if you hadn't kept her home from the school trip?"

"Yes, my daughter would probably have been in the same vehicle."

"Why did you keep your adopted daughter home, Madam President?" This guy was really bugging me. Why do they always have to say 'adopted daughter' instead of just 'daughter'? I think everyone knows by now that mom adopted me. What difference does it make?

"My daughter has the flu and that is why I kept her home."

"So she was too ill to travel?"

Is he trying to suggest that mom deliberately kept me away because she knew something was going to happen?

"No," Mom admitted, "not really. In fact she wanted to go. But I knew they'd spend most of the three days either in a confined train or in fairly confined spaces as most of District Thirteen is still underground and I didn't think it was fair to give her germs to all the other children."

"You must be very glad you made that decision."

"Yes, I am."

"Your daughter seems to make a habit of escaping with her life when others around her die."

What was wrong with this guy?

"If you are referring to the Games she was forced to participate in, then I'd have to agree and I'm very glad she did. I wish that others had been so lucky and I am sending my sincere condolences to my personal friends, the mayors of the Districts and the Capitol. If there are no more, questions, I'd really like to go home and see my daughter as I am sure that she is as upset as I am that many of her friends have been killed today. Thank you all for coming."

The next morning Mom received a phone call and burst out crying. "I'm so sorry. If there's anything I can do, let me know. Of course, take whatever time you need."

"What's happened, Mom?"

"That was Una."

Una was Rue's mother. Rue was the friend who died in Mom's arms in the first of her games. Una and the rest of the family had come to live with us in the Capitol train when Mom was asked to be President.

Well, the first year, we lived on a train going from place to place, but it proved to be an impractical "mobile capitol" so mom reluctantly agreed to move into the palace in the Capitol. Una and her family came with us, but Una chose to have her own house close by, rather than live in the Presidential palace.

"Two of the children killed in District Thirteen were hers."

"Which?"

"The twins. Lau and Tag"

I burst into tears. Since they'd come to the Capitol, Rue's little brothers and sisters had become like my own brothers and sisters. Tag was twelve years old, and he was sweet as anything and far too pretty to be a boy. Lau was his twin sister, but she was born disabled and walked, rather unsteadily, with an artificial leg. It didn't stop her being mischievous though. And now they were both dead. Poor Una.

"Mom, I'm going round to see Una and the kids,"

"You're still not that well. You should be resting."

"Are you going round to her?"

"You know I can't today. I'll send someone."

"Send someone? She needs her friends, not some stranger."

"What do you want from me? We've had bombs all over the place, I have a responsibility."

"Go be President, mom," I said cruelly. "I'll look after Una."

I left my mom crying and ran all the way to Una's house.

The door was opened by one of the younger kids. "Mom! It's Tatty!"

Tatty! Ariana's nickname for me was Tat, but Jeff, who we met in the Hunger Games always insisted on calling me Tatty. Afterward dad picked up on it and called me Tatty whenever he wanted to tease me. Of course, it didn't take long until all the kids called me Tatty too. If Jeff wasn't already dead, I'd kill him. Okay. Not funny.

Una was sitting in a chair, looking at the television, but not really looking.

"Una?"

She didn't react.

"Una?" I said again, more loudly.

"Tat?" she looked at me with eyes that were hollow. Apart from Mom, Una was almost the only person close to us who called me Tat and not Tatty.

"I'm so sorry, Una."

She tried to push herself out of the chair. "I should get you some tea."

"I'll make it," I said, glad to leave the room full of such sadness for a few minutes.

Ben, the youngest boy followed me to the kitchen. Like the others, he'd been crying. "Mom says Tag and Lau aren't coming home. She says they're dead."

"That's right, Ben," I said, struggling not to cry.

"Why don't they want to come home?" he asked.

"They would if they could," I explained.

"Then why don't they?"

How do you explain death to someone who doesn't understand what it is?

"Something happened and they were hurt."

"So they make them better and then they can come home."

"They tried, Ben. But they were too badly hurt."

He looked as though he was thinking about that.

I stayed with Una and the kids all day. Una tried to help make the lunch, but spent twenty minutes cutting away at one potato without even realising it.

Later that day at six o´clock all our television screens went blank. A few seconds later the face of the mayor of District Thirteen appeared on the screen. He looked frightened. "This is Rolan Hawe, mayor of District Thirteen. I now hand you over to President Coin of District Thirteen."

President? I thought. What's going on?

"Thank you, Rolan. And to anyone who is wondering, yes, I am related to the previous President Coin of District Thirteen. I am her nephew. At approximately midday yesterday, the nuclear arsenals of the Capitol were put out of action permanently. The only remaining nuclear power is District Thirteen. We are now your new Capitol. The previous Capitol will now be designated District Zero."

I wondered if mom was watching this. Silly thought. Of course she was.

"Yesterday we detonated a number of explosive devices, one in each of the Districts, including District Zero. A small radioactive trace was added to each explosion to demonstrate our power. There is a far bigger nuclear device hidden within each District, enough to destroy most or all of the District at the push of one of these buttons."

He held up a small control panel.

"If any attempt is made to approach or disarm the devices, that device will be set off. If any action is taken against us, then I will destroy one District, picked at random."

He looked far too happy about the thought of destroying thousands of people. I decided he was crazy.

"But now I have some good news to bring. There were no fatalities in the bombing in District Thirteen yesterday as it was faked."

I saw the first flicker of hope in Una's eyes, but it quickly faded.

"I have one son or daughter between the ages of twelve and eighteen of each District mayor. When the District mayor did not have children in that age range, I am holding a grandchild or closest other relation within that age range. Districts three and five each had two children within that age range. The eldest of each of them are now safely on their way home leaving me with one tribute from each of the twelve districts."

The moment he mentioned the age range a horrible thought had gone through me. When he said the word Tribute, it pretty much confirmed it. Una and I looked at each other. She'd obviously made the connection too.

"I also hold twelve tributes picked at complete random from the children sent by our old enemy, the Capitol. In two week's time we will remind you of our total power over you by holding our own version of the Hunger Games. As before, they will then be held once a year. Good Evening and may the odds be ever in your favor."

"Not again," she gasped.

"I'm so sorry, Una."

Ben piped up. "Are Lau and Tag still dead?"

I was a coward. I left without answering him. "No, Ben," I wanted to say, "They aren't dead. But they will be soon and you'll be able to watch it all on television."

When I got home, Dad just looked hollow. "Is Mom home yet?" I asked him.

"Still working, trying to find out if there's anything they can do. She said not to wait up."

"Poor Mom," I said.

He nodded.

Of course we did wait up. Mum got home late that night and collapsed crying into Dad's arms. I didn't bother asking if they'd found a way to stop Coin. Seeing me, she asked, "How's Una?"

I shook my head. "Bad. She's... It's almost like she's not there if you know what I mean."

She nodded, not quite all there herself.

"Mom, about the things I said this morning..."

"It's all right."

"I'm sorry. I just made it harder on you."

"Come here, darling." She drew me into the hug between her and Dad. "One of the hardest things about being President is not always being able to put those close to me first when they need me."

"We understand, Mom. We know it's not that we're less important, just, sometimes, less urgent."

Mom smiled. "When did my little Tatty grow up?" she teased, as she never normally calls me Tatty, it's always Tat or Tatiana.

"About three years ago," I replied solemnly.

For a minute we just held each other, the three of us, safe in each others arms, all the troubles of Panem a world away.

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It had been announced all day. Mom would be making a Presidential speech at six in the evening. I'd persuaded her to let me go with her to support her, just to be in the studio.

"Silence in the Studio... We're live in 5... 4... 3... 2..."

"This is President Everdene. Investigators in each of the Districts have confirmed the existence of the nuclear devices, sufficiently large to destroy a city, within the central area of each of our Districts, including here in the Capitol. After consulting with the leaders in each of the Districts, we have decided that we have no choice if we wish to ensure the safety of the majority of our citizens. I therefore resign as President with immediate effect and hand the Presidency over to President Coin. The official seal of office will be sent by train leaving at three o'clock tomorrow afternoon. When it arrives in his possession a little over twenty seven hours later, President Coin will officially be your President."

She paused.

"My thoughts tonight are with the families of all of the tributes. Your children are going to have to do terrible things to each other to survive. I know this better than anyone. To the families of the children who will be killed, I ask, however hard it is, try not to hate the child who kills your son or daughter and don't let these awful games divide us against each other. It is not their fault and I can tell you from experience that the faces of those you are forced to kill in the games never leave your thoughts and the blood is never cleaned from your hands. The surviving child will live with unbearable guilt for the rest of their lives, for something about which they had no choice. They are innocent and will remain so."

She took a deep breath.

"I thank you all for placing your trust in this young girl three years ago and the love you have all shown, both to me and to my family. On behalf of myself, as well as Peeta and Tatiana, we love you all."

I could see mom was struggling to hold it together. Dad had been round with Una today, offering what comfort he could, but mom had spent all day with advisers trying to find a way out of this. Now I was going to make it a whole lot worse for her.

I walked in front of the cameras. Mom looked bewildered. "I am a citizen of District Zero and I have something to say."

Mom now looked frightened and was signaling to the staff to get me out of there, so I turned to her. "Mom. If you have any respect for me at all, let me speak."

Taken aback at the slightly harsh tone in my words, she nodded and the staff who had been ready to intercept me drew back. I turned my back to the camera and undid the button-up dress I was wearing, slipping it off my shoulders. I'd chosen my smallest bikini for this. Although it covered me quite adequately at the front, at the back it was just strings.

"On my back are tattooed the names of all the victims who were murdered in the games during my lifetime. Near the bottom you will see the name Rue. She was a twelve year-old girl who died in the seventy-fourth games." I had decided not to add that further down you could see the name Ariana Everdene, my sister, who died in the so-called Justice Games, which I had survived. As a living memorial to the murdered, I felt it only right to add the names of the twenty-nine who died in those games after I won.

I turned around. "President Coin. Two of the children you are holding right now, as random citizens of District Zero, though they were actually born in District Eleven, are the baby brother and sister of Rue, twins, just twelve years old, the same age she was when she was murdered in the games. The girl, Lau, walks with an artificial leg, and even does that with difficulty. To send her into the games isn't a game, it is simple murder. She would not get out of the first bloodbath alive. I beg you to show humanity and mercy and not make this mother who has already lost one little girl to the games, lose another two small children."

My mother looked relieved that all I was doing was making a humanitarian plea. I knew that was about to change.

"I am Tatania Everdene, previously Tatania Snow. I am a citizen of District Zero, both by residence now and by birth. I am the surviving granddaughter of your aunt's greatest enemy and the adopted daughter of the girl who killed her. I am fifteen years old and eligible. According to the rules of the Hunger Games, in place of Lau, I volunteer as a tribute for District Zero."

I heard an anquished "No!" followed by a crash as a chair fell to the floor. Ex-President Katniss Everdene, the Mockingjay, had fainted.

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Author's notes...

** Please review.**

**Brian**

**THE STORY SO FAR**

**Chapter 1**

**The games return and Tatiana volunteers.**


	2. Chapter 2

"**Games Return" **

**Chapter Two**

**By Brian Grove **

**Brian at rescueddoggies dot com**

**Disclaimer – As I'm British and male, it may come as no surprise that I don't own Hunger Games.**

**In the previous chapter...**

** The games return and Tatiana volunteers.**

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We didn't speak on the way home. Mom was as angry as I've ever seen her and I knew she wanted Dad to calm her down before she dealt with me.

When we got home, Dad took one look and said to me, "Go to bed. We'll discuss this in the morning when we've all calmed down. I'll bring you some food."

I felt intensely grateful.

A while later he came up with a meal and a drink. "Thanks, Dad. Is Mom okay?"

"No. Your Mom's not okay. And nor am I. We will talk about this, but not now."

I nodded sadly.

"Tatty. Regardless of how we feel about what you've done and how you've done it, we're both very proud of you and we both love you very much"

That did it for me, I broke down. He hugged me briefly and kissed me on the forehead.

I barely got any sleep that night. If they were upset and angry with me now, I knew I was going to make it worse tomorrow.

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Dad woke me up at seven. "You need to get up. We don't have a lot of time." He left before I could ask why, so I quickly got dressed.

We ate breakfast in silence, a first for our family, then Dad led us into the lounge.

"Before anyone says anything, remember that we love each other. Tatiana," he began. Oh, dear. Using my full name. Not a good sign. "After you went to bed last night we received a message from Coin accepting your decision to volunteer as tribute providing that you arrive at District Thirteen on the train carrying the Presidential seal and no later. That train will leave at three o'clock today. If you go, you will be on it."

"What do you mean, IF?" I said angrily. "This is my decision. You can't stop me."

"Until that train arrives in District Thirteen, I am still President," my mom retaliated. "If I say you don't get on that train, you don't get on the train."

It hadn't occurred to me that she could or would stop me. "Mum. Please, you can't. Not now. What would people think?"

"I don't give a damn what people think. You're my daughter, dammit."

"Yes. For a mother I have a girl who volunteered for the younger sister she loved and for a father I have the lover-boy who tried to kill himself to save the girl he loved."

I think Dad would have laughed if it hadn't been so serious.

"You haven't seen Una, Mom. She looks like she's died already. And for the last three years Lau's been like my baby sister. Think about them. How will they cope if Una falls apart? And she will. She's already lost one daughter. She going to lose a son and now another daughter as well?"

"What about me?" Mom cried. "I lost Prim. I lost Ariana. Now I have to lose you too?"

"Tat," said Dad. At least I was back to 'Tat' again and not 'Tatiana'. "As you said yourself, you're the granddaughter of his aunt's greatest enemy and the adopted daughter of the girl who killed her. There's no guarantee that you'll even make it alive to the Arena."

"In addition," Mom added, "As a previous victor, you'll be the one they're scared of, even the ones who are older than you. You'll be the first one the others want to eliminate."

"On the other hand," said Dad, trying to be optimistic, "she is the daughter of two of the only tributes who have survived two games."

I took a breath. It was time to tell them. "Dad. I'm not coming home. If I can make it through to the end, I've saving Tag as well."

Mum didn't seem surprised. She knew me too well.

"Mum. I know it still hurts that you couldn't save Rue. I can save her little sister and possibly save her little brother too. You'd do the same, I know you would."

"When I volunteered, I at least had a chance of winning," said Mom, sounding more than a little angry.

"Tell me honestly. When you boarded that train for the first time, did you even think for a moment that you would live?"

"No," she admitted.

"If you'd known, one hundred percent certain, that you would be killed in the arena, would you still have volunteered for Prim?"

"Yes."

"Even with time to think about it and change your mind?"

"Yes. I'd still have volunteered. It doesn't mean I want you to."

"Mom, three years ago, you gave me the chance to live, when otherwise I would have died. You gave me life. I've had three wonderful..." I broke up at this point, but forced myself to continue. "I've had three wonderful years with the two of you. Now it's my time to pass that gift on. Please don't take that chance away from me. Please tell me you won't stop me."

"I want to," she replied. "I want to stop you more than anything. But I won't."

"Thank you, Mom." I hugged her, tears rolling down both our cheeks.

"We are both proud of you," Mom said.

"And your first parents and Ariana would be too," Dad added.

"You know. I shouldn't have been surprised," said Mom. "Your first parents gave their lives helping others, my sister gave her life helping others, your sister gave her life so that you could live, Peeta tried to give his life for mine, and I volunteered mine for my sister. With us all so ready to die, we must be a really dysfunctional family."

Despite the immense sadness and the knowledge that we'd never see each other again, we laughed.

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At exactly two o'clock, we stepped out of our front door. Una came up to me, tried to speak, failed, burst into tears and hugged me tightly. Finally Dad had to pull her off of me so that I could move and get into the car.

The route to the station was lined with people. As we passed, they touched three fingers to their mouths and held them out to me, the sign of respect sometimes used at funerals in District Twelve to say goodbye to those you love. Our progress was slow due to the sheer mass of people.

"I can't believe this," I cried. "It's too much."

"This is why we left so early," Dad said. "But this is nothing. Wait till we get to the station."

"I can't deal with this," I said. "Just get me from the car and in the train as fast as you can."

"Are you telling me that you can face almost certain death, but can't face the people showing you how much they love and respect you?" he asked.

I nodded. "It was easier when they hated me," I said.

It was amazing how silent thousands of people can be. As we walked into the station, the crowds were being kept back, although all they were doing was giving me the same respectful salute. One little girl slipped past and handed me a bunch of yellow flowers. They were a bit wilted. She been holding them too tightly and too long under the warm sun. I thanked her and continued on.

I was with relief that I boarded the train. They'd pulled the old Tribute train out of the museum. To my surprise, Dad got on with me.

In a panic, I said, "Dad. You can't come."

"I'm only coming as far as District Eleven. That's where the exchange will be made." he pushed past me and went to take his seat, leaving me with Mom.

I was standing on the train with her on the platform, surrounded by a throng of people all giving me that silent salute. She grabbed my blouse and began to fasten something to it.

"Mum, you can't!"

"It's your token," she replied. "You're the Mockingjay now."

"But it's yours."

"The Mockingjay isn't a person. It's an idea, an inspiration. Look at these people. You are their inspiration now. It belongs to you. You've earned it."

She climbed up to hug me. "I love you, Mom. I wish I could do this without hurting you."

"I love you daughter, and now more than ever. And I hope one day you'll forgive me."

"Forgive you? What's for?"

"It doesn't matter now. Do I get a hug?"

We stood there at the top of the steps, holding each other for what we both knew would be the last time, until a man gently tapped Mom on the shoulder. "It's time, Ma'am."

She pushed me away slightly. "I would say, Go make me proud, but I couldn't be any prouder of you than I am now." She stepped down onto the platform. She looked incredibly small and alone. I almost wished that Dad had stayed with her, almost.

"Cheer up, Mom. At least my outfit for the chariots has got to be better than last time."

Someone gave a haunting four-note whistle, I knew without asking it was Rue's mockingjay whistle. It was taken up by the whole crowd as the train almost silently began to move. I closed the door and waited until we had left the station, then went to join my dad.

"Thank you for persuading Mom not to stop me. I know she wanted to stop me and you wanted her to."

"What makes you think I persuaded her?"

"I know Mom. She wouldn't have let me go."

I noticed that Dad didn't deny it, so I changed the subject. "So why are you coming to District Eleven?" I asked him.

"The train carrying Lau will stop at District Twelve to pick up doctors. They'll first check that it really is Lau and examine her to make sure she hasn't been given some poison or disease or anything, that she really is all right. If she is. When both trains arrive at District Eleven, I will get off this train, which will go on with you, to District Thirteen and get on Lau's train to bring her back to the Capitol."

"It's District Zero now, Dad."

"For now," he answered.

"There's going to be a resistance, then?" I asked.

Dad didn't answer.

"Then Mom will need this," I said, beginning to unfasten Mom's Mockingjay pin.

"It's yours now. Your mom meant what she said. You are the inspiration now, the one they will follow to hell and back."

"That's a lot of good if I'm dead."

"She was simply stating the truth. She was also, very publicly, resigning from the fight. She is no longer the Mockingjay, no longer the leader of the resistance. That means that if you are killed, until a new leader rises, there is no resistance and Coin knows that,"

"But she hasn't given up, has she?" I asked.

"Your mom doesn't know how to give up."

We ate in silence for a while, then Dad spoke up again. "The hardest thing for your mom was giving you that pin. Whatever happens in the games, even if they are canceled for some reason, her giving you that pin, especially so publicly, with cameras everywhere, paints a target on your back. It takes Coin's eyes off of her and whatever she is doing, but is a death sentence for you."

"You will tell Mom I understand, won't you?" I asked. "That I will be proud to wear this in the arena?"

He gave me a smile which wasn't quite a smile as he replied. "I'll tell her you think you understand."

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The platform at the station for District Eleven was surrounded by troops, from both District Eleven and District Thirteen, each making sure that the other side didn't cheat on the deal.

Lau was struggling with her guards. "I want to see Tatty!" she was crying. They wouldn't let her go.

I got off of the train and walked towards her and addressed the person who seemed to be the head of the District Thirteen guards.

"I am Tatiana Everdene, the Mockingjay," I said. His eyes fell to my pin.

I turned to one of the doctors. "Is she okay? Are you satisfied for the exchange?"

"Yes," he said.

I turned back to the head guard. "Please let her come to me. I give you my word that in a few minutes I will be back on that train on my way to District Thirteen with you. Give us one minute together."

"Two minutes," he said. "That's all."

I surprised him by taking his hand. "Thank you."

He nodded brusquely and the guards holding Lau let her go. I walked across and picked her up and swung her around like I used to when she was a little younger. Even the guards smiled.

When I put her down. "You can't go, Tatty. They want to kill you."

"I know, but I have to. I gave my word."

"Break it."

"I can't do that. Now my Dad's going to take you home, all right?"

She nodded tearfully.

"Can you save Tag too?" she pleaded.

"We'll see," I said. Dad took her hand. "Bye, Dad. Take care of Mom for me. Don't let her be any different with Una and the others."

"I will, and she won't be."

I turned and boarded the train

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There were almost as many cameras at the station for District Thirteen as there had been back in District Zero when I left.

The head guard handed President Coin the seal of office and he turned to walk away.

"You're supposed to swear the oath," I called after him. I'd been brought up in the President's family to respect tradition and this little usurper, I couldn't think if him as anything else, couldn't even do the first thing a real president had to do?

"What?" he answered angrily.

"Don't blame me," I spoke rashly. "Your aunt wrote the wording of the new oath. But for centuries, as a new president, the moment you receive the seal, you're supposed to swear the oath of office, pledging to serve honestly and with integrity, serving all the people. Or have you so little respect for your people and even for your own aunt, in whose name you have taken the Presidency?" I think the Mockingjay pin must have made me a little crazy. I was the Mockingjay now. It was a heady feeling. The guards had responded to me at District Eleven and now even the new President had realized something. He could kill me, he could torture me, but as the Mockingjay, he couldn't just ignore me.

"Does anyone have a copy?" I asked. "Nobody? Lucky I have a copy with me, then. As the daughter of the outgoing President, would you like me to swear you in?"

He smiled at me, though his smile didn't reach his eyes. "I think that would be most appropriate," he said.

So I swore him in as President, replacing my mother. I had made him look petty, ignorant and foolish in front of the cameras and I knew he would never forgive me. I knew would pay for my arrogance. I just hoped that nobody else was hurt in the process.

"Take this child away," he ordered, his first order as President.

I was driven to a large building on the surface and led inside, frogmarched by the guards into what was obviously a dining hall. Sitting at one long table were my fellow Tributes. I noticed that they were all watching us, but the guards obviously didn't care as they threw me against a table. I hit the table hard. It hurt my side and I fell down. I got up in as dignified a manner as I could manage.

"Hi. I'm Tatiana Everdene, the Mockingjay. I'm in the Hunger Games and I'm NOT going to win."

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Author's notes...

** Another Rue, Prim and Katniss and ? Some of you may know I run a small refuge for stray dogs in Argentina, although I am English. A couple of weeks ago some "lovely" person threw four terrified five month-old puppies over the 2m high fence. They are now much less frightened and I've given three of them names, Rue, the smallest who flits around jumping all over the place, Prim, very slightly bigger and a little more timid and Katniss, the biggest of the thre females and usually braver (except when I was taking the photos!). **

** You can see them in my facebook /brigrove (Brian Grove) In my photo albums look for the album called 20111124 Rue, Prim, Katniss y ?**

** There is also a male, about the size of the female, Katniss. Any ideas for a name?**

** Added 10th December – I called him Peeta.**

**Please review.**

** Thank you to the person who said that reading Vengeance Games was like reading the next chapters of the book. That's some compliment. Thank you.**

**Brian**

**THE STORY SO FAR**

**Chapter 1**

**The games return and Tatiana volunteers.**

**Chapter 2 **

**Talks and the journey to District Thirteen.**


	3. Chapter 3

"**Games Return" **

**Chapter Three**

**By Brian Grove **

**Brian at rescueddoggies dot com**

**Disclaimer – As I'm British and male, it may come as no surprise that I don't own Hunger Games.**

**In the previous chapter...**

** Talks and the journey to District Thirteen.**

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"Hi. I'm Tatiana Everdene, the Mockingjay. I'm in the Hunger Games and I'm NOT going to win."

Silence. Well, almost. Someone dropped a knife or fork or something and it made as noise as it fell on the table. But all the chattering stopped.

"Everdene, you stupid bitch," a boy a few years older than me said loudly. "Who the hell do you think you are?"

Stunned by the reaction, I couldn't answer.

"Eat. Afterwards, we talk."

I found that my appetite had pretty much gone. So had the surprisingly chatty atmosphere in the hall.

I was confused. Given what mom had said about the others being worried about me as I was already a Victor in the games, shouldn't they be pleased that I was announcing that I didn't intend to kill them all?

A few of the older ones basically "escorted" me into what were obviously the gents' showers.

The one who had shouted at me was sitting on a bench. He motioned me to site down facing him. "Excuse the accommodations," he said. "This place is normally used as a gym. And so far they haven't installed cameras and mikes. And unless they can turn invisible, there's no guards to hear us in here."

I nodded my understanding.

"What did I say that was so wrong?" I asked. "I thought you'd be worried about having to compete with a previous victor and knowing that I don't intend to win would make things easier."

"So you really mean it? You intend to die in the arena?"

"Yes."

"You'll die to save the kid, the brother of the one you've replaced?"

I didn't bother denying it. "How do you know that?"

"I'm eighteen, not twelve. It didn't take a lot of working out. You've survived one games. So if you're choosing not to even try to survive this time, it's because you want someone else to survive. It doesn't take much guessing who."

I didn't reply. I hadn't realized that I'd be so obvious. I'd probably put Tag in danger. The boy's next words confirmed it.

"Look. My grandfather is mayor of District Eleven, where the kid originally comes from. If I lay a hand on that kid, I'll never be able to go home even if I win. But I swear, you make another statement like you did in the hall and I will kill him before we even get to the games."

"Why? What's he to you?"

"Nothing." he sighed. "You really don't understand, do you? You have no idea."

"Obviously not," I retorted angrily. "As I'm obviously so stupid, why don't you tell me what I've done." I was alarmed that none of the others seemed troubled at the threat he'd just made.

He was silent for a moment and I felt uncomfortable as he stared at my breasts. He held out his hand and I flinched away.

"Can I hold it?" he asked.

Relieved, I realized he'd been staring at my pin, the Mockingjay pin.

"I won't damage it or take it," he promised.

I unclipped it and handed it to him.

He turned it over in his hands, and closed his eyes. A tear fell from one of his eyes as he opened them again.

Hoarsely, he spoke, "You have no idea what this is, do you?"

"It's just a pin. They make them in factories in One by the thousand. I know it's the one my mum wore in the Games, but it's just a pin." I knew I was wrong. Even I knew it was more than that.

"You never grew up in the Districts, did you? Or you wouldn't say that. This isn't a pin. It's rebellion against cruelty and injustice, even in the face of certain death. It's a promise of a future that's better than the past. It's Hope, for those who have none. "

A few of the others were openly crying now.

"You don't understand," he said sadly.

"Help me to understand," I pleaded.

One of the girls unbuttoned her blouse and slipped it off. She turned her back to me revealing a lattice pattern of scars on her back.

"I was eight", she explained. "Mom was really ill, it was the winter after Dad was killed by a fire in the lumber mill. We were lucky. While she couldn't work some of our neighbors brought us some food, so at least we didn't starve, though Mom refused to eat until she'd made sure that I'd eaten enough. But the house was so cold that winter. So I went out and gathered some branches to burn for a fire. A peacekeeper saw me. I spent the next two days in their cells. Then they gave me a trial and took me to the stocks. And they did this."

Even now, what must have been about ten years later, she still shivered at the memory.

"When they cut me down, I couldn't get up. So they left me there to die. But one of the men who'd worked with my father came and picked me up and took me home to his house. Apparently I was delusional for three days, I kept fighting them and tearing off my bandages. They didn't think I'd survive. When I did come out of it, they had to tell me that mom had gone out looking for me, as nobody had informed her I'd been arrested. They found her frozen body the next morning. The Peacekeepers had cremated her before I even had my trial."

One of the other girls had her arms around her.

"That was District Seven," the boy from District Eleven explained. "It was the same in many of the other districts. In Eleven you could be whipped or killed for scavenging food from the leavings of the harvesters. In District Eight, where they threw away the rags left over from making clothes, you could be killed for taking the thrown away rags to try to clothe your children. Do you know what tesserae were?"

"No," I admitted, feeling that I should have known.

"To stop your family from starving you could take a tessera. That got your a year's supply of some grain and oil for one person. But it meant your name went into the reaping an extra time. Rue took five tesserae, to try to help feed her brothers and sisters. Her mother wouldn't allow her to take one for her. So her name was in the draw six times. Kids from families who weren't so poor didn't need to do that, so their names went in just once. It still wasn't enough to stop people dying of starvation, you still had to steal and risk a whipping or being killed, but it meant you didn't have to do it so often."

"I knew things were bad," I replied. "Mom made all the people from the Capitol take tours round the Districts before they began to improve. All us kids were the first. "

"Bad doesn't come close," he said. "Some brave people talked of revolting, but everyone was scared. Even talking could get you beaten or killed. Or worse, they could throw your family out of work so they'd all starve."

"I can't even imagine it." I said.

"Then something happened. A girl from one of the poorest districts volunteered, so she could save her younger sister. As nobody in a poor District stood much of a chance against the Careers from the richer Districts who trained all their lives for the games, it was a death sentence. So a volunteer from a poor District was almost unheard of. Then they had this romance thing going, a huge no-no. They were tributes, there to fight and die alone. Then the first sign of rebellion. Do you know what it was?"

"The berries," I said confidently.

"That was later. Rue was killed. And Katniss stayed with her, holding her hand, singing to her as she died. Then she covered her with flowers, like a real human being who mattered, not just another piece in their games. Not only that, she wasn't even from the same District. She might have been forgiven if it had been someone she grew up with, but this, it just wasn't done. Our District broke another unwritten rule after that, we sent her bread. Then Thresh spared Katniss' life, because of what she'd done for Rue. All clearly not how tributes were supposed to behave. Then of course the berries. Nobody apart from the idiots in the Capitol believed that she was a love-sick schoolgirl. She used the berries to force them to let two of them survive, and it worked. She'd beaten the Capitol. And if a girl who was expected to have no real chance, who could be killed at any moment in any number of horrible ways was ready to defy the Capitol, with the flowers and with the berries and still she won, surely there was hope for us. Can you even begin to imagine the effect that had?"

"Maybe."

"Then, for revenge, and to try and stop the rumblings of uprising, they put her back in the games. They had to show us that she couldn't win. She couldn't beat them and nor could we. And in the speeches all the Victors or most of them, basically challenged the Capitol. And they all held hands. Can you imagine the signal that sent? United to defy the power of the Capitol. Then Katniss and Peeta and some of the others decided to not play the game. The game said you fight to survive by killing the others. Katniss fought so that Peeta could survive, he and others fought so that Katniss, by then known as the Mockingjay, the symbol of resistance, could survive. Even believing that the Capitol was determined to kill her this time, which it was, she didn't give in, didn't play their game their way."

I looked down at the pin in my hand.

"It doesn't even end there. When the rebellion was going badly, she spoke out to encourage us, against orders she stood outside a hospital in District Eight, fighting the bombers as they dived in to slaughter people. And, against orders, she led the final assault against the President. That's what the Mockingjay means. Never giving up, no matter the odds, fighting and going on fighting. And that's why you can't be the Mockingjay and makes statements like you did. Not because of the effect it has in here, which is bad enough, but the effect out there. If the Mockingjay gives up, what hope is there for anyone?"

"That's what she meant," I mused.

"Who?"

"Mom. When she gave me this pin, she said she hoped I'd forgive her one day. Now I know why. And I know what Dad meant when he said he'd tell her I thought I understood. Because he knew I didn't or I'd never have accepted it."

"Why wouldn't you want to be the Mockingjay?" he asked me. "Look at you. You even brought the President to heel. And publicly. Anyone else would have been killed for that."

"I probably still will be," I reminded him. "Mum knew what this pin meant, more than anybody. She used to say that being the Mockingjay was a curse and I never understood what she meant. I told her that I wasn't going home, that I was going to save Tag, if I could and she didn't argue. She knew she was going to give me that pin. She knew, once I knew what it meant, that I would have to fight. She knew that probably at least some of the others would die to keep me alive, just for what this pin means to people. How could she do it? She wants to force me to be a victor again."

"What's wrong with that?" asked one of the girls. "It must be great being a victor."

"Really? Ask yourself why half the victors are drunks or drug-addicts. They had to be brought out at every games, relieving the moments when they'd killed someone, then they had to spend time every year getting to know and train two new kids, and usually watch them die some horrible death. At least as there haven't been any more games I was spared all that. But not the nightmares."

"Nightmares?"

"I was twelve years old and had to fight for my life. My sister and I were beaten up and tortured with knives, I watched them cut her up. A girl was stabbed to death and her blood exploded all over me. You know three years later I can still taste it? Later I had to watch my sister raped. I know it's my imagination, but sometimes I can still feel the pain from the snake bite in my arm. But worse than any of those things, I beat a girl's brains out, smashing and smashing her head until the canon sounded to tell me she was dead. There isn't one night I can go to sleep without seeing her face as I kill her, the fact that she tried to kill my sister and me makes no difference. I can still feel the sensation in my arm as I smashed the branch over her face, still hear the noise her skull made as it cracked open or the little moans she made as she was dying."

One of the girls, I didn't notice which, put her arm around me.

"Later I tricked a boy and a girl to come towards me, so that Jeff could push the boy off a cliff to his death and Ariana killed the girl. I still hear her pleading for Ariana not to kill her. And then at the end Jeff and my sister jumped off a cliff to their deaths so that I could live. They are both dead, while I am still around. Just like the other twenty seven who died. What did I do to deserve to live while they all died?"

There was no answer they could give me.

"And now, thanks to Mom, I have to do it all over again. And you're telling me that if I don't survive, the whole resistance may collapse?"

"No," said the boy from District Eleven, whose name I still didn't know. "I didn't say you couldn't be killed, I said you couldn't give up. I said you have to fight, and I mean fight, because they'll know if you're faking it. A martyr is still okay for a resistance. But a leader who gives up isn't. I promise you, once we're in the arena, I will kill you if I can."

I smiled. "That's probably the nicest thing you've said to me so far."

He grinned. "You know, there's still nothing to stop you sacrificing yourself for the kid, but what you can't do is say things like you did out there."

"I think I understand now," I said.

"Good."

"One thing I don't understand though," I said, "is why you're all so chatty with each other."

"What do you mean?" asked a girl who was obviously from the Capitol by her accent.

"Think about it. You get to know someone, maybe even like them as a friend. And in a few days time, how's it going to feel if you have to kill them? Will you hesitate? Will you die because you hesitated? Or will you kill them anyway? Only then it will be worse than my nightmares, because you'll know the person you killed. They won't be just a face in the games, but a friend, whose life you just took. That's why there are so few allies in the games, except for the Careers, who trained for it for years. If people did form alliances, they split up when the numbers got low, so they hopefully wouldn't end up having to kill each other. But the way you've all been chatting here, and when I came in, every person you will will be someone you know personally."

"The trouble is, most of us already do know each other," one of the boys pointed out. "Those of us related to the mayors all know each other, at least socially, and the group from the Capitol all know each other, they're all from the same class in school."

So that's why they're all about the same age, a year below mine, I guessed.

"And we've spent days together in this tour and even after we were kidnapped, before we knew we were going to be in the games."

"That will be a problem," I predicted, and yawned. "Sorry. Didn't get a lot of sleep last night."

"Come on," said the girl from Seven. "Enough talking. You're rooming with me. I'll show you the way."

I said goodnight to the others and we walked up through a door into what was obviously a hotel in normal times. It didn't take long to find our room and it was spectacular. To my surprise, the windows were open.

"We can't escape. I've tried. Try if you like but the force field stings like hell."

"I'll take your word for it."

"I hope you don't snore," she said.

_**NOTE: It seems hardly anyone is reading my Hunger Games stories and almost nobody has read the previous chapter of this story. I'm used to averaging about one review for every 60 words not one review for over 4000 words. This story has one review so far. Obviously nobody is really interested in it. I'm posting this chapter as it's already written, but unless people are interested it just isn't worth writing more.**_

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Author's notes...

** Please review.**

**Brian**

**THE STORY SO FAR**

**Chapter 1**

**The games return and Tatiana volunteers.**

**Chapter 2 **

**Talks and the journey to District Thirteen.**

**Chapter 3 **

**Tatiana learns what the pin really means.**


	4. Chapter 4

"**Games Return" **

**Chapter Four**

**By Brian Grove **

**Brian at rescueddoggies dot com**

**Disclaimer – As I'm British and male, it may come as no surprise that I don't own Hunger Games.**

**In the previous chapter...**

** Tatiana learns what the pin really means.**

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"Ariana!" I screamed as I leapt up from where I'd been sleeping. I had to save her. The girl turned to me and I just hit her with all my strength. She collapsed to the ground and I found my hands around her throat, pushing her against the wall. Wall? What wall? This wasn't right. This wasn't how it happened.

I opened my eyes and let the girl from District Seven drop to the floor as if my hands were burning from being around her neck. I forced myself to breathe. In, out, in, out. Deep and slow.

The girl was still watching me, her eyes wide with fear. I struggled to remember her name. "Evelyn? Are you all right?" She nodded slightly and I walked towards her. She scampered back, terrified of me.

I backed off and sat on my bed. "I'm sorry. I haven't had one that bad for over a year now. I guess all this brought it back to me. Are you really all right?"

She nodded again, more firmly this time. "I guess I shouldn't have tried to wake you."

"Sorry, I should have warned you. I thought I was past all that. I guess not. Is your throat all right?"

She put her hand to her throat. "Yeah. It's just you were tossing and turning for ages, moaning, then you started screaming. Is it often like that?"

"It used to be. Now it's usually just that I can't stop seeing, things, before I go to sleep. I often wake up shaking and sweating, that's all."

"Every night?"

"Most nights."

"I'm sorry."

"What for?"

"My District. We were one of those who wanted revenge, we wanted to do to the Capitol's children what they'd done to ours. We did that to you."

"It wasn't you."

"If I'd been older, it would have been. Then, when you were screaming Ariana, I couldn't bear it any longer. I had to help you, had to wake you up out of it."

"You can't afford to think like that if you want to win, if you want to survive."

Evelyn burst into tears. "I can't do this."

"You have to, if you want to live."

"I'm not sure I do."

"Then you're already dead," I said bluntly.

"I don't mean I want to die. In the last day or two, it's all I've thought about. I'm so scared of dying. Not just of being dead, but how I'll be killed. Will it hurt? Will it be quick or will someone put on a show for the sponsors, if there are sponsors this time, and kill me as slowly and painfully as possible? Then, there's knowing that my family will have to watch. I know how it would tear me apart if I had to watch one of them be killed on television. I really, really don't want to die in these games. Then, last night, what you said about being a Victor and what I just saw you go through. I think I'd rather be dead than end up like..." She stopped, embarrassed.

"Like me," I finished for her.

The next few days were full of training, similar to the training days in the Capitol given to each victim before the games. I tried to put out of my mind what we were training for, as the training itself was quite enjoyable. The only problem was that every now and again, I remembered that the last time I did this, it was with twenty-nine other kids, including Ariana, and within days, all of them were dead.

The last time Mom was doing this, in her second games, there were plans being made to break her out. I knew with the threat of nuclear annihilation, there would be no such plans being made now.

I was alone. Accepting death had been so easy, but now? Now I had to fight, simply to show that the Mockingjay never gives up. How many of the kids I was training with would I have to kill?

Mid afternoon we had a break with a drink and some cookies. A small picnic bag each with one of our names on. I opened mine. On each of the cookies was the symbol of the Mockingjay. Somebody out there, here at District Thirteen was on my side. On my side enough to risk death by showing me.

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There had been no chariots to display us all yet, which would normally have been the first thing we did, before the training. But one morning we were all summoned and told there would be a dance that night to honor the anniversary of the overthrow of the Capitol by the Mockingjay. Mom would be furious as she hated getting all the credit for the battle in which so many gave their lives.

As the new Mockingjay I was to be the guest of honor, something that didn't exactly inspire me. I was shown to my prep team, who I swear took a delight in every painful thing they did. I HATE waxing.

When I returned to the others to eat, Evelyn was worried. "You don't think Coin's set this up to execute you, do you?"

It had occurred to me. "I don't know. I doubt it, but it's possible."

"How can you be so blase about it?"

"I'm not blase. But I'm not afraid to die either."

"Don't think like that!"

"It doesn't mean I want to die. But I faced death in the arena, spent all that time convinced I had just days, or hours, or even minutes or seconds to live. Dying doesn't scare me. And at least I won't have to kill any of you."

With the group already so close before I arrived, it had proved impossible not to be absorbed into the group during our training days. They were all on their way to becoming my friends and while I still wanted to save Tag, the thought of killing any of them was becoming increasingly painful, not just to me, but to most of us.

"So you're not afraid of him killing you tonight," said Evelyn. "That's good, isn't it?"

I nodded.

"Then what are you afraid of?"

"What?"

"You've been like a cat on hot bricks since we returned from the prep teams. Something's bothering you."

"What if I let everyone down? I'm not Mom. She just did things and said things. She didn't even think about it, but people took notice. She just WAS the Mockingjay."

"And when you faced down Coin at the station, so were you."

"Mum was respected. She came out of District twelve, yet became who she was anyway. I'm just a spoiled little girl from the Capitol who she felt sorry for and adopted. She earned this pin. I had it given to me. I can't BE her."

"You have no idea how we felt watching you take him on like that. You knew he could kill you in a moment, but you did it anyway. You gave us hope, Tatiana."

"Yeah, then I came here and screwed up the moment I opened my mouth."

"That's because you stopped thinking like the Mockingjay and were speaking like a girl who had no other responsibilities. You understand now."

"What if I get it wrong again, in front of the cameras this time?"

"You won't. Trust your Mom, Tat. She knew what she was doing when she gave you that pin, even if you didn't, and I don't think it was just to try and save your life. Just remember who and what you are. You can do this."

"Thanks Evy."

"Time to go back to the prep teams," she said.

The dress they gave me to wear was a too-small, too see-through and tarty replica of mom's mockingjay outfit. Three years ago I would have been embarrassed to wear something so revealing, but being paraded naked with just a little coal dust, all on live television, tends to remove any such embarrassment, especially as I knew what that outfit meant to people, no matter how he perverted it.

Then it was time for make up. The prep team were like excitable schoolgirls. I almost cried as they chopped off half of my longish hair, especially as they did it asymmetrically. My make-up made my face look too pale, with almost comically red lipstick and dark eyes. The hair and make-up were a style popular in the Capitol about five or six years ago and I knew I looked ridiculous.

I was led out and up the stairs, just in time to see the tributes from the Districts enter the ballroom. Rather than being dressed for a dance, they were all dressed for work, in whichever District they came from.

Then the tributes from the Capitol entered. The girls were all dressed in beautiful ball gowns, the boys in splendid perfectly tailored suits and obviously cut from the highest quality fabrics. The contrast between them and the tributes from the Districts couldn't be more obvious.

The man who had just introduced the tributes, "Now, I hand you over to our new President, President Coin."

I couldn't see him, but I could almost feel his hatred upon me as he spoke next. "Today we commemorate the uprising of the districts and the victory of the District's Mockingjay over the Capitol. It is entirely appropriate that our guest of honor is the Capitol's Mockingjay, Welcome Tatiana."

When I didn't move instantly, somebody pushed me from behind and I stumbled into the room. Great entrance, I thought, walking to take my place with the other tributes amid a scattering of laughter at my expense.

"Nothing to say, now, Capitol Mockingjay?" he sneered at me. He walked over to me and a technician held a microphone to my mouth. "But you were so brave and arrogant at the station."

"Your aunt was afraid of the Mockingjay. That's why she murdered a bunch of children, including Primrose Everdene. And that's why my mom killed her with her bow and arrow."

He looked ready to kill me.

"And you're the same. You're afraid of the Mockingjay. That's why you need to try to humiliate me like this and why you are going to kill these innocent children who never did anything to you."

I knew it was coming. I'd goaded him long enough. I forced myself not to close my eyes as he swung his arm around to hit me hard on the face with the back of his hand. The force knocked me back against the table.

Struggling to stand upright again, I said, "I'll make you a deal, Mr. President."

"And what can you have to offer me?"

I swallowed the blood I could taste in my mouth, "Me. You don't need these other kids. Let them go and I will stay. I give you my word I will not try to escape and I will order everyone not to try rescue me because I will not go with them."

"Why should I want you? A spoiled brat from the Capitol who only won her games because others gave their lives for you?"

"Because you hate me and loathe what I represent. Think about it. You can kill the Mockingjay, or you can torture me, or you can do as my grandfather did. He threatened the Victors families to force them to act as prostitutes he could rent out to the highest bidder. How much would people pay you to go with the Mockingjay? And you wouldn't even need to threaten my family and I will cooperate. You have my word. You'll have the Mockingjay as your slave."

For a moment, I really thought he was going to accept. For a moment I thought that maybe I could save them all. For a moment.

"I already have you completely in my power, Capitol Mockingjay." He laughed. "So eager to sacrifice yourself. It will be fun to see you in the games again, forced to kill these children you are so eager to save right now or to be killed by them."

"And then my mom will kill you, like she did your aunt and my grandfather. She's probably polishing up her bow right now."

A nod of his head and something slammed into me. Evelyn told me later that some of his guards beat me until I was unconscious and left me lying there for the whole of the dance until almost the end.

All I remember is waking up wet. Apparently when I wouldn't wake up, someone tipped a bucket of iced water over me as the President laughed.

"Ah! The Capitol Mockingjay is with us again. Come. Sit over here. We have a presentation in your honor. What a pity, your lovely Capitol make-up seems to have washed off."

When I didn't react, someone grabbed what was left of my hair and I was dragged across the floor and dumped unceremoniously into a chair.

"Give her a microphone," the President ordered. "I'm sure we all want to hear her reaction to her present."

The guards brought in two children, a boy about eight years old and a girl about four or five. They were followed by a quite pretty young woman, her face bloodied. Last came a man. He was dragged in, badly beaten, his legs obviously broken, his hands crushed and deformed and was thrown on the seat next to mine.

"This traitor was a baker," the President announced. "He baked the symbol of the Mockingjay into cookies every day, to send them to the Capitol Mockingjay. Let this be a lesson to all traitors. This is how you will pay for your crimes."

He nodded. One of the guards held up the struggling boy in front of me while another spot him in the head. I vaguely heard people scream. I forced myself not to react as I was splattered with the boy's blood. As their mother desperately fought to get free, they did the same to the little girl.

"All these are dying because of their support for the Capitol Mockingjay," the President said coldly.

The children's mother had stopped struggling. I think she had fainted. It didn't matter. In moments, she went the same way as her children.

"Any last words, traitor?"

"I am proud to have served the Mockingjay! Fight for Freedom!" He cried loudly before he was silenced by a bullet.

"How touching. But, Capitol Mockingjay, you haven't thanked me for your present. I'd have expected better manners from someone educated in the Capitol."

"Thank you, Mr. President, for showing everyone, that right here in District Thirteen, there are people ready to fight and die for freedom. I am not the Mockingjay, they were, and all those who fight for freedom, because the Mockingjay isn't a person, it's a belief, it's a willingness to die rather than live under tyranny. You can kill me, and another ten will rise up to take my place. You have already lost."

His face was contorted with fury as he snatched up a knife. The last thing I remember is seeing it come towards me and a sharp pain in my chest as I blacked out.

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Author's notes...

** EVIL CLIFFIE (laughs like the crazy maniac I am.) **

** Still waiting for suggestions for the name of the male puppy thrown over my fence with his three sisters. The females are Rue and Prim (the two smaller one) and Katniss (the bigger one) The male is about the same size as Katniss, they are all about five months old.**

** Taylor, you offered to beta for me in an unsigned review, but I lost your contact details. Please send them to brian at rescueddoggies dotcom subject beta.**

** Thank you to those who have reviewed. I normally try to reply, but fanfiction net kept giving me page not found when I clicked on a reply link.**

** This chapter was already half written when I uploaded the previous chapter.**

** Please review.**

**Brian**

**THE STORY SO FAR**

**Chapter 1**

**The games return and Tatiana volunteers.**

**Chapter 2 **

**Talks and the journey to District Thirteen.**

**Chapter 3 **

**Tatiana learns what the pin really means.**

**Chapter 4 **

**Nightmares, training and a deadly dinner dance.**


	5. Chapter 5

"**Games Return" **

**Chapter Five**

**By Brian Grove **

**Brian at rescueddoggies dot com**

**Disclaimer – As I'm British and male, it may come as no surprise that I don't own Hunger Games.**

**In the previous chapter...**

** Nightmares, training and a deadly dinner dance.**

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Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return

"Finally, you're awake."

"Mom?" I asked. No, the voice was wrong. I tried to focus on the blurry face in front of me.. Slowly it came into focus. "Evelyn."

"How are you feeling?" she asked me.

I tried to think of some witty answer. I failed. "Awful." I tried to sit up, but a sharp pain put a stop to that idea.

Evelyn slipped out of the door and returned with two nurses. "She wants to sit up," she told them.

The two nurses put a hand up my knees and another under my arms, then jointed their hands to lift me. It still hurt as they moved me. "Don't try to move yourself," one of them warned me. "You'll pull your stitches." They left without another word.

"What happened? How long was I out?"

"Nearly three days. When the knife hit you, you lost a lot of blood. Nobody moved to help you until Coin started shouting for Healers to save you." She gave a bitter sort of half-laugh. "You'd probably owe him your life if it wasn't for the minor detail that he was the one who nearly killed you in the first place."

"He just doesn't want me to die that easily," I said, my voice harsh. Looking at her I felt guilty for snapping. She looked exhausted, dark rings around her eyes and she was still wearing her clothes from the dance. "Please tell me you haven't been sitting there the whole time."

"I won't tell you then," she replied.

"She wouldn't leave your side for a moment." I looked up to see Tito, the boy from Eleven who'd yelled at me that first evening. "Evelyn. Now you can see she's okay, go and have a shower, get out of that bloody dress and get some sleep."

Evelyn nodded. As she turned to go, I said quickly, "Evelyn! Thanks."

I was about to snap at Tito. How dare he dismiss Evelyn, order her to go like that? But I saw the look of concern on his face as she left.

"You like her," I said.

"It's not like that," he denied.

I raised an eyebrow to show that I didn't believe him.

"It might be,"he admitted, "if it wasn't for... If we weren't here."

I nodded my understanding.

"Evy said you were worried you'd let everyone down."

I felt embarrassed that she'd told him.

"You didn't," he assured me. "You did great. You must have been crazy to taunt him like that, but you made him look like a petty, childish bully. The rumor is he's trying to find a way to avoid having the interviews. I think he doesn't want to give you the chance to speak again."

"Good, because I have no idea what I'd say."

"Talking about what you said... Can I speak bluntly?"

"Don't you always?"

"Well, yeah. Can we forget you're the Mockingjay and all that for a minute?"

"Please," I said emphatically.

"There's nothing I want more than to live and go home, away from here. But to hear you offer to enslave yourself to that scum, to set us free, to set me free, I don't want that."

"There wasn't much chance he was going to accept it anyway."

"But you meant it."

His intense look embarrassed me.

"I don't want you to sacrifice yourself for me, Tatiana."

"Maybe I was just acting and I'm going to sneak up and kill you all in the games," I said, trying to lighten the conversation.

"Tatiana, you showed Coin up as a idiot, for showing everyone that there is a resistance here in Thirteen. Every time you opened your mouth, you wiped the floor with him and probably made half the viewers fall in love with you."

"Hardly," I countered.

"After everything you said and did at the dance, I bet half of Panem are ready to follow you to hell and back. I know I am. And I'm not the only one. Anyone who tries to kill you in the games will have to come through us."

"No, Tito. Trying to protect me will just get you killed. I don't want anyone to die for me."

"Panem needs you alive, Tatiana."

"It's not going to happen. I knew I was dead the moment I offered to come here. Coin will see to that. If he doesn't arrange for the games to kill me, he'll do it some other way. He would have done it anyway, but now, there's no way he can let me live. You want my advice? Stay away from me, or I'll get you killed."

"You know, Tatty. Don't you think it's time you forgave yourself?"

"What for?"

"For surviving the games three years ago, when nobody else did."

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Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return

I remember... "It's called Survivor's Guilt," Dad had told me, though I still called him Peeta then. For some reason it just seemed natural to call Katniss 'Mom' almost immediately, but it took me a lot longer to think of Peeta as 'Dad', even after their wedding. Perhaps it was because I usually found it easier to talk to Katniss, perhaps it was the time she'd spent training me... us.

But when I woke up yet another night seeing Ariana leap to her death with Jeff, I was too angry with Katniss to talk to her about it.

It was almost a year after my games and I'd just shouted at Katniss (she was definitely Katniss and not 'Mom' that night,) to go away and leave me alone, when Peeta came in.

"What's up, Tat?" I remember noticing that he'd called me 'Tat' instead of 'Tatty' which was how he usually liked to tease me.

"Nothing," I answered sullenly.

"So much of a nothing that you shouted at Mom so loud I could hear it from downstairs?"

I wanted to deny it again, but I was too angry to bother. "Why did Mom decide to kill Ariana instead of me?" I asked.

Peeta didn't seem surprised at my question, nor offended, not that I would have cared if he was.

"Your mom never thought of it that way. She knew she could only save one of you. So she decided to save you."

"And kill Ariana," I said. "Why did she deserve to die and not me? Why wasn't she good enough to save? Why did I have to lose my sister!" Damn, I was crying.

Peeta sat down on the bed next to me and pulled me up, so that he could hold me.

"It was never like that," he answered. "She would have saved Ariana as well if she could. She would have saved all of you. And she really was trying to..."

"Well, she had her chance. She could have voted not to hold the games."

"You know, the games shook people up. In particular, it pretty much took away support from those who wanted to wipe out everyone in the Capitol. For twenty-nine lives, that decision probably saved thousands of lives. But even now, you Mom blames herself for every one of those twenty-nine deaths and she probably always will."

"That still doesn't answer why she chose me to live instead of Ariana," I said, determined not to let him off the hook.

"Partly it was the way you were forced into the games when you shouldn't even have been eligible. I know that she was desperate to right that wrong."

"Partly?"

"By now, you know the hardest thing about winning the games. It's knowing that because you won, you survived, all those others had to die. It's called Survivor's Guilt. It's not even just about any you may have killed personally, it's just the fact that you lived, when others, who had just as much right to live as you, didn't. Sometimes the guilt is about all of them, sometimes it focuses on one or two. For me it was the girl Katniss called Foxface. I killed her by accident as I'd collected berries for us to eat. Knowing that I'd collected them for us, she ate them without a second thought, but I'd made a mistake. The berries were deadly and she paid the price for my mistake."

"I remember," I said, having seen it happen on live television.

"For Katniss, her worst guilt is little Rue."

"But she wasn't the one who killed her," I protested.

"Did I say Survivor's Guilt was logical?" he retorted. "No, she didn't kill Rue. But Rue had become her friend and she had an accident, getting caught in a net while Katniss had left her alone, had been too far away to help, then she was murdered. Your mom has never forgiven herself for not being able to save her. A lot of the time when she has nightmares about her I can hear her singing in her sleep, the song she sang as Rue died. I don't wake her up any more when I hear her singing that, because if she sleeps through it, she usually doesn't remember it in the morning, but if she is woken up, she remembers and it's with her all day."

I hadn't realized that Mom had nightmares as often as I did.

Peeta hadn't finished. "Then her little sister Prim was killed right in front of her and she couldn't save her either even though she'd taken her place in the games to save her. Two twelve year-old girls, well, Prim was thirteen by the time she was murdered, but two young girls your mom couldn't save. It became an obsession with her that you weren't going to be the third."

"Do you get nightmares?" I asked him.

"Yes," he admitted, but never said anything else about them.

"Thanks, Dad," I said. It was the first time I'd called him that and he smiled.

"Will you be okay now if I go to bed?" he asked me.

"I think so."

We never spoke about Mom choosing me instead of Ariana again. I still sometimes wished she hadn't, but I understood.

Now it seemed obvious to Tito that I still hadn't got over my Survivor's Guilt. Was that why I was so eager to volunteer for Lau? To cleanse myself somehow? Was that why I was so desperate to offer myself to Coin, because somehow saving these kids would wash away the guilt of the other twenty-nine?

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It was nearly two weeks later before I was well enough to take part in the Chariot ride. The night the Chariot rides were announced, Tito said, "Coin loses his rag and ends up having to delay the games, so you being stabbed meant we all lived nearly three weeks longer. Any chance of you upsetting him again tonight? A few more delays like that and I'll be too old to take part."

At my serious look, he said, "I was joking. I don't really want him to stab you again."

"It's not that. I'm just thinking about our families," I answered. "Dragging it out like this must be terrible for them."

"I don't know," Evelyn answered seriously. "I think my parents will be glad I'm still alive, even if it is just a short time extra."

Our clothes for the chariots were not exactly inspirational, to put it mildly. We were all given the clothes we had worn for the dinner dance, except for me. My dress had been badly stained with blood, so they had another one made up, almost identical, but the material felt finer although it was actually less see-through than the previous dress. I wasn't complaining.

As we lined up ready to mount our respective chariots, Tito came over to say, "Be careful."

"Why? What do you mean?"

"Think about it. He's got us all dressed like the dinner when you humiliated him. Why would he make people think about that if he wasn't up to something?"

"He's right, Tatty," Evelyn said. "Especially as they've got you going last."

I couldn't argue with that, but nor could any of us see what he could be planning.

All was well as the chariots made their way out into the square. Behind me on the chariot was what looked like a cheap cardboard cut-out painted with a picture of mom as the Mockingjay, her headdress in flames. It look cheap and nasty compared to the videos I'd seen of mom.

Even the crowd in District Thirteen seemed disappointed. There was nothing worth seeing.

I was almost at the far end of the square, where we had to turn around and came back when the cardboard cutout burst into flames. It was far enough behind me that I wasn't bothered. It lit up the night, but was still nothing compared to the original it was trying to imitate, a pale imitation.

As my chariot turned around, I felt something wet hit the back of my leg. 'What was that funny smell?' I thought for a second as I looked back and down, only to see flames leap across the gap following the liquid. The material of my dress caught instantly. I tried to run and found that I couldn't move my feet. Flames were all over me now, engulfing me, and the last thing I remember think before blacking out due to the agony was that I was going to die as the Girl On Fire.

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Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return

Author's notes...

** I know it's another evil cliffie, but I just couldn't resist. Please review.**

** Thanks and Welcome to Taylor as my new beta.**

**Brian**

**THE STORY SO FAR**

**Chapter 1**

**The games return and Tatiana volunteers.**

**Chapter 2 **

**Talks and the journey to District Thirteen.**

**Chapter 3 **

**Tatiana learns what the pin really means.**

**Chapter 4 **

**Nightmares, training and a deadly dinner dance.**

**Chapter 5 **

**Girl On Fire, take two.**


	6. Chapter 6

"**Games Return" **

**Chapter Six**

**By Brian Grove **

**Brian at rescueddoggies dot com**

**Disclaimer – As I'm British and male, it may come as no surprise that I don't own Hunger Games.**

**In the previous chapter...**

** Girl On Fire, take two.**

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Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return

If there is a word that sums up the next few days it's boring. Either that or pain. Although the burns were superficial, they were quite widespread and to avoid infection, nobody was allowed to visit me.

All I could do was watch the television, not exactly inspiring. Of course I saw re-runs of the Chariots. You could clearly see a man spray some kind of liquid, alcohol I'd guess from the speed at which it burned, between the flames behind me and my dress and the dress went up in flames in seconds. I'm sure the material was designed to catch fire like that.

Tributes from the nearest chariots leapt from their chariots and ran to try to pull me off of my chariot, without success. I'm sure some of them must have suffered some burns as they tried to beat out the flames with their bare hands.

Then five men came running to my chariot. Four immediately smothered me in foam from fire extinguishers, while the fifth ran to the man who had set me on fire and shot him once in the head. He fell dead, instantly. Then the chariot, now without flames, turned and went at full speed towards the hospital.

There were only two other items of interest on the television. The first was footage of protests in District Zero. The people there were complaining about their children being used again for games. The gist of their complaint was that children from the Districts had grown up knowing that they were at risk of the games and so it was okay to use kids from the Districts, but not from the Capitol, as they still called what was now officially District Zero.

I was so angry at them that I got too worked up. One of the healers came in and turned off the television and ordered me to go to sleep.

Sleep? These were my people, people I grew up alongside, screaming that it's somehow okay to kill off District kids, my friends. Some had even been blaming the Mockingjay, my mom, for defeating the Capitol nearly five years before and hoping that the Capitol's own Mockingjay would save them. I knew mom would be heartbroken, her work to unite all of Panem destroyed at the first serious challenge.

I felt ashamed of my own people. From the moment Tito and Evelyn had made me understand what being the Mockingjay meant, I had doubted that I could fulfill the role. Now, for the first time I wondered if it was even worth the bother trying.

By the way he had dressed the tributes for the dance and for chariots, and always referring to me as the Capitol's Mockingjay, Coin was trying to restore the divisions between the Districts and the old Capitol, and it was working. It was a classic technique, divide and rule.

The other item of interest on the television was the live transmission of the interviews. This, I realized, was the reason for the faked assassination attempt on my life. To put me out of action while the interviews went out. It was Coin's way of keeping me silent.

The first person interviewed was Evelyn.

"Evelyn. No doubt you've seen the protests in District Zero saying that the games should only have tributes from Districts One to Twelve. Can I ask for your reaction to that?"

"Disappointment more than anything. I still have a back covered with scars from being whipped almost to death when I was eight years old, for the crime of scavenging branches to try to stop my sick mother from dying of the cold after my father was killed. We knew our lives meant nothing to the people in the Capitol. I guess, we hoped that had changed."

"You were sharing a room with the Capitol Mockingjay until the attempted assassination. Do you have any news of her?"

"We haven't been allowed to visit her but we're told she is recovering well."

"You're closest to her. What do you think her reaction to the District Zero protests is, as she comes from there'"

"Knowing Tatiana she's furious, and upset. She treats us the same wherever we are from."

"I'm sorry we've run out of time before even getting to your strategy for the games. Thank you Evelyn. Now let's interview one of the District Zero tributes. Alain?"

One of the boys from the class of fourteen year-olds came forward.

"You're from District Zero, so I'll ask you what I asked Evelyn. You've seen the footage calling for you and your friends to be let go. What's your reaction?"

"You've just spoken to Evelyn, from District Seven. She's had a hard life and has no reason to like anyone from the Capit, I mean District Zero. But she's my friend. Tito, from District Eleven is like a big brother to all of us. That my people, from where I grew up, could say it's okay to kill them, or even, less wrong to kill them, simply because of where they were born, it makes me ashamed."

"There are rumors that President Coin is considering giving in to their demands and releasing those of you from District Zero. If that is the case, what would you do?"

"I'd like to think I'd be brave enough to refuse to go, and stand by my friends, but I probably wouldn't be. I'd probably go, then never be able to look myself in a mirror."

The rest of the interviews were pretty routine until they came to Tito.

"So we hear you're the big brother, Tito."

"Well, we're like a family now and I'm the eldest, so I have to try to keep spirits up. Of course it's been easier since Tatiana arrived."

"I understand that five of you had to be treated for burns from trying to save her after the assassination attempt."

"That's right. Two from District Zero, one from District Five, one from District Eight and one from District Ten. It didn't matter whether they were from the old Capitol or one of the Districts. They just happened to be closest. Like I said, we're like a family. You prick one of us and we all bleed."

"A family now, but when the games start, you will have to kill each other. Only one can come out alive. The others are all keeping quiet about their strategy. While nobody is listening, can you tell me some of yours?"

Tito grinned. "Sure. Like some of the others, I've sworn to protect the Mockingjay with my life and not to attack any of the others unless they attack me first."

"What does the Mockingjay think of this rather unwise and extreme display of loyalty?"

"She doesn't know about it. Well, she didn't. I guess she does now. It's probably just as well she's in the hospital and will have time to calm down before she shouts at us."

"You realize that refusing to attack anyone is a way to ensure you don't win the game? You will be killed."

"I'm not out to win. I'm simply not playing the game. If Coin wants to murder twenty-odd innocent kids, he can find someone else to do it or do it himself."

The screen went dead. I wanted to shout at the screen, "Tito, you're putting your family in danger. You can't rebel openly like that," but I could do nothing.

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Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return

I was kept in the hospital a few more days, though I'm sure it was just to keep me separated from the others. I did learn that nothing came of the idea to let the tributes from District Zero go, I realized that it must just have been a cruel trick to try to divide the group.

Then, one morning... "Get up! You're leaving. Put this on." Something bright orange was thrown at me.

Forcing myself out of bed, I picked up the clothes that had been sent to me. The top was similar on design to my Mockingjay dress, while the bottom half was more like simple jogging pants, and there were boots, all in the same garish color, with flames painted on them. Obviously, the wardrobe department here in Thirteen suffered from a severe lack of imagination.

I was wondering where I was going to be paraded this time when the woman returned. "Follow me."

After a mildly painful injection of a tracking device, I was led to a tube. The tube closed and began to rise. I looked around me and was astounded. It was beautiful. Green grass to my right, ending in blue water, to my left what seemed to be an apple orchard. A veritable paradise, if it wasn't for the minor detail that all but one of us had to die if one was to leave here alive.

The Cornucopia was almost dazzlingly bright in the brilliant sunshine. Almost as bright as my orange Mockingjay suit must be. I stood out like a sore thumb.

I looked around me at my fellow tributes. Only Tito had said what his plans were, so, even if he had been telling the truth, I had no idea what the others were going to do. Heck, I didn't even know what I was going to do. Across from me and slightly to me left, I could see Tag. Okay, I thought. Priority one, grab a backpack, get to Tag and get him away from here safely, then see about some water.

The moment the gong sounded, I was off and running. I grabbed a backpack and ran towards where I could see Tag. He had also grabbed a backpack and had turned to run away. Just off to my right, I saw a set of knives. I darted across to grab them, just beating two others to them, then ran towards Tag. Another tribute was chasing him, an ax flew and landed in his shoulder and he fell to the ground, screaming.

I tried to run faster, but the slight extra time I'd taken in picking up the knives had cost me. The tribute who had thrown the ax calmly picked up the ax and sliced into Tag's neck.

"No!" I screamed, my desperation giving away my position.

The axeman turned. He saw me and smiled, actually smiled. It was the one from District One, I couldn't remember his name, but in thirty seconds it wouldn't matter anyway, I would see to that.

He swung the ax at me, laughing as he did so. I moved just out of range. He swung again. This time, as it passed me, I launched myself forward in a crazy dive, the set of knives still in my hand. In slow motion I saw one of the knives slash across his chin, while others buried themselves in his neck. I noticed the look of panic in his eyes as he fell, blood pouring from several holes in his neck.

I grabbed my knives, his ax and backpack and turned to Tag. It didn't take a healer to know that he was dead. Like his older sister, killed by a boy from District One. Just as Mom had killed the boy who had killed Rue, I had avenged his death seconds after the fatal blow had been struck. But there was no singing him to sleep and I could see no flowers. There didn't seem to be anything I could do for him that would make his death meaningful like Mom had for Rue, except stay with him a while.

I'm not sure how long I knelt there until someone grabbed my arm. "Come On! Are you trying to get yourself killed? Get out of here!"

Tito.

"I'm coming," I said. Tito and I now each had three backpacks, Tito had a slingshot and a sword and I had the ax and my knives.

We ran, but the extra backpacks didn't help our speed much.

After what seemed like an age, he stopped. He'd been limping more and more as we'd been running. "I can't go any further," he said. "We should be safe as anywhere here."

Eight canons. The bloodbath at the Cornucopia was over. One third of us dead in the first few minutes.

"Your leg's bleeding," I said.

"Oh really?" he asked. "I hadn't noticed." There was bitter sarcasm in his voice.

"Let me at least bind it up," I said.

"You've done enough, Mockingjay," he replied angrily.

Shaken and startled by his tone, I said nothing.

"Can you bring me some water from the stream over there?"

I looked around me as I filled the bottle for my backpack with water. In other circumstances this place was ideal for a romantic picnic, not that I was ever going to have one of those.

Tito snatched the bottle from my hand the moment I returned and poured it into the wound in his leg.

"You should have let me disinfect it first," I said.

He ignored me as he sliced some material from his trousers to bind up his leg. He was looking pale. He must have lost quite a bit of blood.

"I don't know what I've done, or why you're so angry with me, but whatever it was, I'm sorry."

"I'm going to rest," he said. "Keep watch, if you can manage to stay alert this time. Wake me for the anthem."

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Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return

I did as he said, and woke him when the anthem started. Tag was the third face they showed and I thought of poor Una and Lau. I'd saved Lau, but failed to save Tag, he was dead in the first minute. They didn't seem to be showing the faces in any particular order. The second to last face was Evelyn.

I turned to Tito. "I'm s..."

"Don't say it," he snapped at me. "I don't want to hear it."

"But..."

"You don't get it, do you?," he said angrily "You killed her!"

"I didn't even see her," I protested.

"You didn't see anything. You were so damned busy with the dead kid, you didn't notice a thing. The girl from Four was coming after you. Evelyn ran full pelt to get in her way, to stop her, but instead, she stopped Evelyn. Evelyn only had a knife, Four had a sword. Took her about two tries to run Evelyn through."

"I'm..."

"I got there, and we fought, that's how my leg got hurt. She couldn't get the sword out of Evelyn fast enough, so she cut me with Evelyn's knife before I managed to kill her. I tried to help Evelyn, but she was bleeding so much, we both knew it was too late. She told me to leave her and go protect you, made me promise... She worshiped the ground you walked on and you got her killed. So don't bother telling me you're sorry, 'cause I don't care how sorry you are. It won't bring her back, will it? Get some sleep, it's my watch."

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Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return

Author's notes...

** Please review.**

**Brian**

**THE STORY SO FAR**

**Chapter 1**

**The games return and Tatiana volunteers.**

**Chapter 2 **

**Talks and the journey to District Thirteen.**

**Chapter 3 **

**Tatiana learns what the pin really means.**

**Chapter 4 **

**Nightmares, training and a deadly dinner dance.**

**Chapter 5 **

**Girl On Fire, take two.**

**Chapter 6 **

**Interviews, and the games begin. **


	7. Chapter 7

"**Games Return" **

**Chapter Seven**

**By Brian Grove **

**Brian at rescueddoggies dot com**

**Disclaimer – As I'm British and male, it may come as no surprise that I don't own Hunger Games.**

_**Sorry about the delay. A rescued puppy I tried to save (Mily) died in spite of everything I could do and I didn't feel much like writing. As I run an animal refuge, I should be used to it, but you never do get used to it.**_

**In the previous chapter...**

** Interviews, and the games begin. **

Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return

Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return

I wanted so much to scream out to Mom that I couldn't do this, that I couldn't BE the Mockingjay, that Tito was right, that I'd killed Evelyn. I wanted to cry out to Evelyn's family that I was sorry she'd put her faith in someone as weak as me, to cry out to Una, that I was sorry that I'd thought getting the knives were more important than protecting her son.

I could do none of these. Like it or not, I was the Mockingjay and I couldn't show that kind of weakness or defeat. I owed it to Tag and Evelyn.

That still left me with a number of problems. If what Tito said in his interview was correct, there was a group of tributes, how many and who I didn't know, who were determined that I would live through these games. But I didn't want anyone else to die for me. I didn't think Mom's trick with the berries would work a second time, even if I could see any, which I couldn't. If I make it out of the games, what then? There's no way Coin's just going to let me go

I was woken by a canon. Damn! I'd fallen asleep when I was supposed to be on watch. I looked across to Tito. He was still sleeping, the canon hadn't woken him. Who had the canon been for? How long had I slept? I didn't feel any more refreshed than I had earlier. Guilt for Tag and Evelyn came back to me, along with the realization that I had no idea what I was going to do now, or even what I wanted to do.

I just knew I was tired. I had come to the games with one resolve, to get Tag out alive. I didn't have a backup plan. My own reason for fighting was gone, gone in the first few minutes. Tito said the Mockingjay had to fight, but how and more importantly why?

On the how, there were two ways I could survive these games. One was by killing those, who over the previous few weeks, had become my friends. I was still unable to get the face of the girl whose head I had smashed in three years ago out of my mind. She had been a stranger and I knew I would never forget her. I knew I would never be able to cold-bloodedly kill a group of friends.

The second way was equally unacceptable, to force those who were sworn to protect me to kill for me and then die themselves. Unacceptable.

Then there's the why? Survive the games and see what tortures Coin can dream up for me? I'd already tasted some of his gentle mercy. Resigned or not, Mom was without any doubt the real leader of the resistance to Coin and he must know that. He wouldn't kill me quickly. He'd use me to break Mom, just as my grandfather had used Peeta to try to break her.

Other than as a hostage, what use was I? I could hardly storm District Thirteen and capture Coin – any resistance and he'd destroy an entire city with the press of a button.

Dawn. The increasing daylight only emphasized the dark hopelessness in my mind.

Tito was sweating and shivering, it was obvious now I could see. I touched his forehead. He was burning up. I thought back. He'd washed his wounds with the water and in his anger at me hadn't given me the chance to sterilize it.

I crept down to the water and stripped off my shirt, quickly soaking it in the water. Infected or not, it made no difference now. I had to cool him down.

After wiping him down, in an effort to cool him down further, I soaked my shirt again and wrung it out over his own shirt, making it as wet as possible, then went back to soak it yet again.

I thought I heard a noise, but when I looked around I couldn't see anything. Returning to Tito, my senses heightened by nerves now, this time I soaked his hair.

Again I heard a noise. As I turned I pulled my knife from my pocket, ready to throw it.

"What have we here?"

I was facing two boys I knew were from Districts Eight and Twelve. One had a bow, with an arrow already lined up on me, the other held what looked like a long curved blade. The only way I could out-reach the blade with my knife was throwing it.

"I'm sure Tito would appreciate the strip show better if he was awake," Kiran from District Eight said. "But don't let us stop you." He turned to the other boy. "Do you want her first or shall I?"

I shivered.

"Cut it out," his companion, who I remembered was Anton, said.

"I'm just funning. Nobody's got a sense of humor any more."

"It's not funny. Look, Tatiana, no hard feelings. I don't want to kill you, but I want to go home. I have no choice."

"Choice or not, not many tributes can say they caught a Victor," Kiran said.

"You know I could probably kill one of you first," I pointed out.

"You can try."

"Don't worry. I'm not going to."

"What?"

"I'm not playing his game. I will not kill to save my life."

"She's serious. Come on. Kill him before he wakes up, then her and we're outta here." He started to move towards Tito.

I brought my knife around. "Touch him and it'll be the last thing you do. I swear it."

"What the...?"

"Back off from him. Now," I said.

"What gives? One second you won't kill, the next you threaten to kill me?"

"I came here to save lives, not to kill," I explained. "But I won't allow you to kill him or anyone else if I am around. If I have to kill you to stop you, I will do it, believe me."

"You're crazy. Come on, Kiran, kill her first."

"Good luck."

I spun around to see who had spoken. "Tito! You're awake!"

Ignoring me, he said to the two boys, "Good luck if you get back to your Districts."

"What do you mean?"

"How long do you think you'll last if everyone saw you kill the Mockingjay?" He turned his face upwards. "Hey! You lot! You lot watching us! Anyone wanna bet on how long the person who kills the Mockingjay lasts if they survive the games? I'd give them a week, if they're lucky."

"But she's not the real Mockingjay," Anton argued. "Katniss just gave her the pin."

"You keep telling yourself that," said Tito calmly. "You saw how she handled Coin. You've heard how victors were treated. You want to win, only to be used , controlled, your family threatened every time you make a mistake?"

"That was Snow," Anton insisted.

"True. Perhaps Coin will be different. Perhaps he won't mind you being free after you've won. A free-thinking powerful person in your District? No, he wouldn't mind that, would he? I mean, he'd never select the kids of the most powerful man in each District, just to control their parents. Oops. He just did."

"What do you suggest?" Kiran asked.

"The way I see it, you have two choices. Kill her, then me, then all the others, if you can, before they kill you first, all the time wondering if your mate is going to kill you while you sleep. Maybe you might kill your mate first and if the odds really are in your favor, you might even win. Then you can trust Coin to treat you fairly, like he has up to now. Of course, he might just decide to dispose of your family anyway."

"And what's the other choice?"

"Don't play his game. Trust the Mockingjay to get us out of here alive and get rid of Coin."

"Can she do that?" Kiran asked.

A little fed up of being talked about as though I wasn't standing right there, I said, "Yes, I can do it and I will do it. Coin's already lost. He just doesn't know it yet."

After the weapons were piled on the floor, I treated the water from the lake with iodine tablets and we all drank. We didn't find any food all day.

When I was sure the other two were sleeping, I turned to Tito, "What was all that 'Trust the Mockingjay to get us out of here' stuff? How am I supposed to live up to that?"

"You will."

"Somehow I don't think there are enough berries to go around, even if they'd fall for it."

The next we were joined by a few others from the Capitol. That made us a group of six, nearly half of the survivors, and a difficult target to attack. It also meant that our turns on watch could be shorter. Lack of food was making us weak, we didn't need lack of sleep to add to that.

During my few hours on watch, I satisfied myself that all was quiet, then went down to the lakeside to fill all our water bottles so that I could have them all sterilized before everyone woke up.

From behind me I heard a noise, then it felt like my head exploded in pain.

Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return

Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return

"She's waking up." - A boy's voice.

"If you're going to kill her, why didn't you do it before she woke up?" - A girl's voice.

"I want to see if you're right about her." He turned to me. "You hear me?"

I nodded. My mouth was dry.

"Give her some water."

I tried to reach for the bottle, but my hands were tied. Instead he went to pour some in my mouth. I closed my lips.

"It's safe. We treated it," the girl I had heard before said. I tried to remember her name, but my mind seemed too woozy to think straight.

I let the boy pour water in my mouth as I drank desperately.

"That's enough," he said, pulling the bottle away. "Now. Let's see if they're right." He put a finger on my cheek, the slowly ran if down my neck and into the top of my fake mockingjay top.

I panicked, tried to push myself away. "Please..." I begged.

He took his finger out and smiled. "The brat was right then."

"What do you mean?"

"One night, the girls were boring us silly talking about boyfriends and that brat said that everyone said you'd never let a boy near you after what happened to your sister."

I couldn't deny it. That was another memory I tried not to remember.

"Coin wants a show, doesn't he? Well, he's going to get one." He grabbed me roughly between my legs.

I closed my eyes. I didn't want to see him. It didn't help. Close my eyes and all I could see in my mind was what they did to Ariana.

"Leave her!" the girl shouted, pulling his hand away.

He turned out and slashed at her with his knife, cutting deeply into her left arm. "Try that again and I'll kill you first."

"Can't you see she's terrified?"

He smiled. "That makes it better."

"Remember the dinner!" the girl almost screamed at him.

"What about it?"

The girl crossed over to where I was tied. She touched my chin and lifted my face. I could feel the blood on her hand from where she'd been covering her wound. I flinched.

"See how scared she is? Yet she offered herself to Coin to get us out of here."

"Didn't work though, did it? We're still here."

"Doesn't change a thing. She was willing to suffer anything, just to save your miserable life. And this is the thanks she gets?"

"That's probably why she did it, so mugs like you would go soft on her."

"You don't believe that any more than I do. Kill her if you must, but not this."

"Coin hates her. He'll reward us for making a show out of her death."

Despite my fears, I laughed bitterly. "Reward? Like his aunt rewarded my mom for winning the war by killing her little sister? You're sick if you believe a word he says."

"Sick am I? When I'm done with you, I'm going to kill you, slowly. I wonder how many bits I can cut off before you bleed to death. I'll start with your fingers."

The girl moved to stand between us.

"Get out of the way," he yelled, "or I'll do the same to you."

Gaty! That was her name, I remembered. "Gaty," I said. "Move."

She spun to face me. "But..."

"I don't want anyone else to die for me. Please move."

As she hesitated, I saw him come at her with his knife raised, then he fell to the ground with a scream, blood spurting from his back.

Behind him, the smallest girl in the group was looking at the bloody knife in her hand in complete horror. She let the knife fall to the ground and let out an awful scream.

Gaty quickly grabbed hold of the smaller girl and hugged her tightly. "You saved my life, and Tatty's. It's all right." She turned to the others in the group, who had stood by, too frightened to intervene. "Untie her."

Once untied, the shock of what had happened, and nearly happened, hit me. I threw up. The boy who had untied me passed me a water bottle and I rinsed out my mouth.

The smaller girl, Pippa, was shaking hysterically in Gaty's arms. As I moved towards the two of them, my group burst into the small clearing, armed to the teeth and ready to kill. The scream from Pippa a few minutes before had led them to us.

Some of the group who'd captured me immediately tried to raise their weapons to defend themselves. This could get ugly fast.

"Stop! Weapons down!" I screamed out. "Everyone!"

Seconds went by as everyone froze. Tito lowered his sword to his side. The others followed suit.

"Someone help Gaty. She's hurt bad."

I took Pippa from Gaty's arms. "It's okay, Pippa. It's okay." As I held her, she began to stop writhing around and began to cry quietly." She seemed too small to be in that class of twelve and thirteen year-olds and I knew she'd never be able to forget what she'd had to do today.

"So what do we do now?" someone asked, a boy I think, I hadn't really been listening.

"We walk," Tito replied. "To the sunrise."

Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return

Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return

Author's notes...

** While we're all waiting for the movie to come out in march, I've been watching some fantastic Hunger Games videos. One brilliant fanmade video (by professionals) of Rue's death scene is so good that I'm sure the millions who've seen it will judge the actual movie by whether their version is anywhere near as good as this. If this doesn't make you cry you've got no heart. It's to be found on a TUBE site YOU probably know about, just add this link after the site name...**

**/watch?v=Z_jw3z68TW0 (note that the first minute and ten seconds is other tributes running and fighting)**

** For something brilliantly funny, there's "I wanna go" a Hunger Games parody version of the Britney Spears song **

**/watch?v=HoHfCW-O2yA**

** Then of course there's the recently-released official trailer **

**/watch?v=lIVKX4Wu77U**

** Apologies to my beta, Taylor for posting this before you returned it to me. I didn't want to make people wait any longer. **

** To anyone who's saved this story and/or vengeance games – I've made corrections on all the chapters of both stories, so you might want to save them again.**

** Please review (the story, not the videos)**

**Brian**

**THE STORY SO FAR**

**Chapter 1**

**The games return and Tatiana volunteers.**

**Chapter 2 **

**Talks and the journey to District Thirteen.**

**Chapter 3 **

**Tatiana learns what the pin really means.**

**Chapter 4 **

**Nightmares, training and a deadly dinner dance.**

**Chapter 5 **

**Girl On Fire, take two.**

**Chapter 6 **

**Interviews, and the games begin. **

**Chapter 7 **

**To play or not to play?**


	8. Chapter 8

"**Games Return" **

**Chapter Eight**

**By Brian Grove **

**Brian at rescueddoggies dot com**

**Disclaimer – As I'm British and male, it may come as no surprise that I don't own Hunger Games.**

**In the previous chapter...**

** To play or not to play? **

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Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return

How Tito forced himself to walk, I really don't know. He was burning up, it was clear, and, like the rest of us, hungry. I'm sure I saw apples when we first got to the arena, but since then, none of us have seen anything remotely like food.

I would have suggested return to the where we saw the apples, but Tito seemed to know exactly where we were going.

By nighttime, Tito was staggering as he tried to walk. He decided it was time for us to rest for the night, but as I was choosing a spot to lay down, he said, "Come with me, away from the others."

I had to help him walk and I couldn't help but notice how hot he was.

"You're burning up."

"I haven't got long," he said.

"Don't talk like that," I replied.

"Tell my father, I'm proud to have been his son."

"You can tell him yourself."

"Stop it, Tatiana. I can't walk any further and you can't afford to wait for me."

"Don't ask me to leave you."

"You must. The others will need to depend on you when I'm gone."

"I can't lead them. I don't know how."

"You can. They will follow you."

"I don't even know where we're going."

He pulled me down to him so that he could whisper, "Follow the dawn and keep going. When the storm breaks, stay away from the edge."

It dawned on me (excuse the pun) that obviously there was some kind of plan going on, which I'd known nothing about.

"Nice of you to tell me now," I snapped.

"That's what you get for missing staff meetings."

We were silent for a minute before he spoke again. He gripped my arm, almost digging his nails into my flesh. "Make them understand," he said desperately.

"Who? Understand what?"

"The Capitol and Thirteen. Whatever it takes. Make them see the games as they are to us."

"I don't know how."

"It's the only way you'll stop the games."

"I promise. I'll get rid of Coin."

"Not enough."

I shivered with the cold.

"You need to go back and sleep."

"I can't leave you here."

"I need some time alone."

"Promise you won't stay out here all night?"

"I may be some time."

Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return

Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return

The roar of a canon woke me. "Tito!" I cried. I ran to where he was only to see his body being lifted away.

I wanted to scream out at them to bring him back, that I couldn't lead these kids without him, but I couldn't. I couldn't show weakness now.

As soon as it was daylight, I made everyone start walking. Tito's death seemed to have weakened us all, along with the lack of food. Even the weather seemed to be affected. The bright sunshine was hidden behind a dark cloud.

Beside me, Gaty struggled on. It was obvious that her wound had become infected despite our attempts to clean it. Her arm was already beginning to swell up. I was painfully aware that she had been injured protecting me.

"I think you should leave me," she said.

"No," I replied.

"I'm slowing you all down."

"I said no!" I retorted, more harshly than I'd intended.

"I'm dying, Tatty. We both know it."

I couldn't answer.

"Tatty. You need to think about those you can save. Unless someone conveniently sends a doctor..."

"I'm not leaving you."

I didn't mention that I didn't have any idea where we were going anyway, or how far it was. That's what I get for missing staff meetings indeed!

Tito was right about one thing. The others did follow me, without question. I hated the thought that I was blundering on, without even a plan, and all their lives were in my hands.

The next time we stopped for a rest, Pippa came to speak to me next. She had a haunted look about her that I knew only too well. "I don't know what to do," she said.

"What do you mean?"

"I can't stop seeing him. He didn't even see me and I killed him."

"You saved our lives."

"I know. But I want to use all our water to wash my hands. But even if I did, I can't get the blood off. I don't want to see him any more."

I hated Coin more than ever at that moment. I knew only too well that like me, she'd never be able to get her hands clean, she'd always see the boy she had to kill. It might fade in time, but this sweet girl who I was willing to bet had never harmed a soul in her life, would never be the same again.

"I know. I wish I could tell you it gets better."

I wished so much I could say something to make it better for her.

We were slowly starving. It had struck me that these hunger games must be pretty boring to watch when the gamemakers' solution appeared.

When those innocent looking rabbits appeared, I knew they had to be trouble. But we were so hungry. This time nobody took any notice of me, or my warning as they ran to catch the rabbits.

The moment one was caught, it twisted around and bared it's teeth, vicious sharp canine teeth. Before any of us could react we were all being attacked by these monstrous perversions of the animal kingdom.

It was over in less than five minutes. Between us we'd killed them all, but it had cost us. Pippa had seen a lot of them attack one of the boys from the Capitol. She'd gone in with her knife to save him, slashing in all directions. By the time we got to her they'd ripped chunks out of her flesh, biting through her trousers. She was badly hurt. A canon sounded.

"I couldn't save him," she cried. "I tried. I tried so hard." I held her as she wept.

I had to let her go as Gaty was in even worse state. Several had latched onto her and her legs were, to put it bluntly, a mess. One had bitten into the wound on her arm and a sickening smell of dead tissue hung around her.

"Now you'll have to leave me," she said.

"No," I croaked.

"Tatty. Will you do me a favor?"

"Anything," I replied, "But I'm not leaving you to die alone. Anything but that."

"Kill me."

The shock must have shown on my face.

"Please, Tatty. It hurts so much and you have to go on."

I felt a hand on my shoulder, "I'll do it," said one of the boys.

I turned to him ready to scream at him all the hate I felt for Coin at that second. But I saw he was crying. Everyone gathered around us was crying.

"No," I said, "It has to be me." I felt Gaty relax as I said it.

"You don't have to do everything yourself," he argued.

I didn't want to have to explain. I was already a killer, he wasn't. I didn't want him to have to live with this. So I just said, "I owe her."

I picked up the knife I'd let fall to the ground. With her good hand Gaty weakly grasped my arm. "Thank you," she said quietly.

I could barely see for the tears as I said, "No, thank you, for my life." I brought the knife down hard. I fell on her sobbing, barely noticing her canon.

Someone, I'm not sure who, led me away from her body.

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Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return

"Here," It was Pippa. She handed me a plate. "Rabbit stew. No veg, but they taste okay."

"How long have I been asleep?"

"Ages."

"You should have woken me. We need to go on."

"You needed the sleep and we all need to eat."

I nodded, unable to argue with her logic. "So eat, then."

She gave me a sad smile and began to eat from her own plate.

Any other time, the rabbit would have tasted good. When you're starving to death, it should taste like heaven. But it didn't. These creatures had killed two of us, if you count the fact that they'd injured Gaty enough that I'd had to finish her off.

Gaty had been hurt saving my life and in return I had killed her. I know it was to end her suffering and that she'd have died anyway, but somehow it didn't seem like a very good trade for her. Yet another person who had died so that I might live. I wondered what her family had felt, seeing me kill her. Would they hate me? Would they even understand? I knew she was an only child. Would they ever get over this? Would any of us?

I saw Pippa struggling to stand up, so I helped her. "Will you promise me," she began, hesitantly, "if I get as bad as Gaty, you'll kill me too?"

At my look of horror, she said, "I can ask one of the others. It's not fair on you."

I shook my head and said solemnly, "I promise."

"Thank you."

She was struggling to walk and we took turns helping her.

When I was one of the two helping hold her, she said, "I don't want to die."

I stopped and held her in my arms, a frightened child who had seen and done things no child should ever have to see or do.

The sun had still not reappeared and the sky was getting darker, but in the fading light, we could all see a shimmering.

Pippa asked me, "What's that?"

"The force-field. It's the edge of the arena." I replied, not really sure how I knew.

At least we could stop and rest now. Despite the meal of rabbit, we were all tired out.

Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return

Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return

I'm not sure if it was the rain or the crashes of thunder which woke me. Lightning flashed all around us. With a start I remembered Tito's words.

"Get away from the force-field!" I screamed, dragging Pippa away, ignoring her screams of pain.

There was a terrific boom which actually hurt my ears. The shimmering force-field exploded in a blinding flash.

"Quickly!" a voice said.

We all ran towards the voice, even Pippa, who refused to let go of my arm for a second.

"Follow. You have to come quickly," the man shouted to us.

I insisted on making sure the others got out safely. "I recognize you from somewhere."

"Introductions can wait."

As the last of us left the arena, I heard shots. The man pushed me aside and was badly hurt, one shot blowing off a large part of his left shoulder.

The men who had shot him were already being chased away by other fighters, but I knew it was too late for this man who had just saved my life.

"Tell your mom, I did my job this time. That always was the one thing I had going for me, taking care of her family. Tell her... Tell her, I'm so sorry for Prim. Perhaps she can forgive me now."

He had bled out before I could reply. I knew who he was now. "I'm sure she has, Gale. I'm sure she has."

"Miss. You need to come."

"Is everyone safe?"

"They're all okay."

"The little girl? The one who was hurt?"

"She's on her way to a doctor. Please, Miss. It's not safe here."

I acquiesced. I was taken down several flights of stairs and along more corridors than I can remember. "In here, Miss. Good Luck."

Resisting the impulse to ask why I'd need luck, I entered the room.

Coin was sitting at a desk. Thinking I'd been betrayed, but ignoring everyone but him, I literally dived at him, punching him in the face, expecting to be killed at any moment.

He didn't move or retaliate. He just gave me a vacant stare.

Someone pulled me away from him.

"Tatiana, I'm Beetee. We have taken over the most critical areas of District Thirteen. We need to show you with Coin, so that you can order their troops to stand down."

"What about the nuclear bombs?"

"They have been dealt with."

I knew he was an expert not only on electronics, but on bombmaking. If anyone could do it, I guess he could. He was the one who, with Gale Hawthorne, had developed the bombs which had killed Mom's sister, Prim.

I didn't trust him.

A big screen in the center of the wall of television screens came to life. "It's good to see you again, Tatiana."

I couldn't help a smile. Plutarch Heavensbee, Secretary of Communications and the man who had sneaked me into the studio back in the Capitol when I'd volunteered for the game.

"Plutarch," I said.

"Beetee," he said, ignoring my greeting. "We're ready to go live when you are. Have you secured the feed to Thirteen?"

"Yes. We're using the game channel. It can't be blocked or turned off."

"Good. Ready when you are, Mockingjay."

"What do you want me to do?"

Plutarch grinned at me, "What you usually do, play it by ear. Just like your Mom. Sometimes it's hard to believe your not her natural daughter."

Beetee laughed. "Camera one will follow you, so don't go in the areas which aren't under the main lights."

I knew I looked a mess, a bloody mess to be more accurate. "Should I clean up a bit first?"

"No," said the woman who seemed to be directing the actual film crew. "If you're anything like your mother, you'll come across better as you are."

"You filmed Mom?"

"She stepped forward to shake my hand. "Cressida at your service, and my number one cameraman, Pollux. Whenever you're ready, Mockingjay."

I composed myself for a moment then nodded.

"This is Tatiana Everdene, the Mockingjay. We have taken control of District Thirteen and all nuclear bombs in the other Districts and the Capitol have been dealt with."

I walked across to Coin. "As you can see, the usurper, so-called President Coin is now in our custody and will be made to pay for his crimes. All District Thirteen troops are hereby ordered to stand down and surrender. I give you my word that if you surrender peacefully you will not be harmed."

Satisfied that they didn't need me any more, I was shown to the hospital where the other surviving tributes were being cared for.

"Tatty," a weak voice called me.

"Pippa!"

"They say I'm going to live."

"Of course you are."

"I'm going to have some scars, but I'm not going to die."

"I'm glad."

Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return

Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return

I returned to the Capitol with the survivors and the bodies of the kids from the Capitol. As we stepped down from the train a couple came running up to Pippa as I helped her down the steps. Her mother hugged her and to my surprise, her father hugged me.

"Thank you for looking after Pippa."

"We looked after each other. I'd be dead if it wasn't for her. She's a bit sensitive about her scars."

"However she looks, we're just glad to have her back."

"I'm sure. Just remember, the worst scars are on the inside. If she needs me, call me, anytime."

"Thank you."

I stepped away from him, looking for Mom and Dad.

"Miss Mockingjay?" a woman asked.

"Yes," I said, distractedly.

"I don't want to bother you..."

Then don't, I thought viciously. I was glad I hadn't said it as she went on...

"But I wanted to thank you for what you did for Gaty."

She suddenly had my full attention. "You're her mother?"

"Yes."

"I'm sorry. She saved me and I couldn't save her. And then I... You must hate me."

"You don't have to explain, Miss Mockingjay."

"Tatiana, please, call me Tatiana."

"Tatiana, then. I saw it all. She always worried that she'd never find anything worthwhile to do with her life, that her life would never mean anything."

"I think her life meant a lot," I said.

"So do I," she replied. "And thank you for letting her end it with dignity."

She turned away and I was suddenly almost suffocated by two hugs.

"Tatty, it's good to have you home," Dad said.

"Let's go home," Mom added.

Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return

Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return

Una had visited me the next day, with her remaining kids. It was a short, but painful visit for all of us.

A week later and Beetee had been sworn in as President. Mom had refused to accept the Presidency for a second time and he had been the leader of the rebellion.

"Mom," I told her. "I'm leaving. I don't belong in the Capitol any more."

"What do you mean?"

"After all those protests. They haven't changed a bit from when grandfather was President. They still think it's okay to kill children from the Districts."

"That's a little harsh. They were just scared. And it wasn't all of them."

"It was almost as many as those who saw me off, Mom. How can I live here with them, knowing they were quite happy to see people like Evelyn and Tito die?"

"Where will you go?"

"I don't know. How can I be the Mockingjay but feel like I don't belong anywhere?"

"You could go with Una to District Eleven."

"She's moving back there?"

"Yes. She feels the same way you do."

"I'm not sure. It might be, awkward."

"Whatever you do, know that I'm proud of you."

"Thanks, Mom."

Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return

Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return

Proud of me. I wonder if that will last, I thought to myself as I walked out of the meeting I'd asked for with Plutarch and President Beetee. I'd expected it to be harder to convince them, especially Beetee, but I'd won.

"Make them understand," Tito had said. "The Capitol and Thirteen. Whatever it takes. Make them see the games as they are to us."

Oh, yes, I'd make them understand, all right. My revenge would go down in history. But that, as they say, is another story.

Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return

Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return - Games Return

Author's notes...

** Please review - Coming VERY soon – Genocide Game, put me on author alert and you'll be notified. Otherwise look out for it in the next few days.**

** In the meantime, please don't forget my Harry Potter stories (same account as this one) or my new original stories under my na****me ****~brigrove** **on f****ictionpress (.) com **

** A Tiny Trickle - Britain languishes under a harsh totalitarian regime. My problem is, my girlfriend wants to fight them. How we become just a tiny trickle in the river of resistence**

** Florencia at school - I really didn't need a new girl deciding to attach herself to me, especially one as obviously terribly damaged as Florencia. What mystery surrounds her and who are the men who seem to want her dead?**

**Brian**

**THE STORY SO FAR**

**Chapter 1**

**The games return and Tatiana volunteers.**

**Chapter 2 **

**Talks and the journey to District Thirteen.**

**Chapter 3 **

**Tatiana learns what the pin really means.**

**Chapter 4 **

**Nightmares, training and a deadly dinner dance.**

**Chapter 5 **

**Girl On Fire, take two.**

**Chapter 6 **

**Interviews, and the games begin. **

**Chapter 7 **

**To play or not to play?**

**Chapter 8 **

**Sacrifices.**


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